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The inspiring way volunteers celebrated Maggie Walker's birthday: 'Tenacity, perseverance'

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RICHMOND, Va. — Volunteers celebrated the 158th anniversary of the birthday of one of Richmond’s most beloved trailblazers by giving back on Saturday.

Walker was the first African American woman to start a bank in 1903 and the first woman to serve as president of a bank in the nation.

People gathered at Walker’s Jackson Ward home, which is a national historic site, and at the nearby statue in her honor that was unveiled five years ago.

Organizers said they hoped that people in attendance and across the city can be inspired by the life of Maggie Walker.

“We can look to her,” Paul Manning with Richmond Parks and Recreation said. ”We can look to Councilwoman Lambert as people of vision. People who fight through with tenacity, perseverance. And that's really what this city, this commonwealth, this nation, is about.”

Saturday’s event included a cleanup of Maggie Walker Memorial Plaza and the Jackson Ward neighborhood.

For more information about Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, call the visitor center at 804-226-5041, visit www.nps.gov/mawa or connect via their Facebook page.

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