Beschreibung:

Real photo postcard of the Provident Bank & Trust Company of Fort Worth, Texas, n.d., ca 1910. Stamped caption in red. Shows three African American tellers, two men and one woman, assisting two patrons, one black and one white. A sixth man, also African American, sits at a desk to the left wearing a suit and bowtie. The verso is inscribed, "This is a bird eye view of some of the businesses owned and operated by the Colored man in the South Loredo." Stamped and addressed to a Mrs. P.F. Fisher of Anadarko, Oklahoma. The Provident Bank and Trust was founded in 1907 by R.C. Houston, Jr., a well-known African American businessman in the Ft. Worth area. At the time of its founding, it was the first African American bank in Texas and the fourth African American bank in the entire south. The bank failed in January 1912, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speculates in a May 11, 1912 article that its failure may have been due to sabotage from a rival bank. It was a bank primarily for African Americans, but the articles notes that at least one white man was known to do business there, further evidenced in this image. Condition: Light creasing, some bumping to corners, toning to verso.