America's Financial Literacy Pioneer: President Abraham Lincoln

Ending up right where we started. Financial literacy for all.

President Abraham Lincoln was a radical of even a different form than we think we know.

When we think of President Abraham Lincoln most people think of the Civil War, freeing the slaves, restoring the Union, and signing the Emancipation Proclamation. But this is only half of his amazing story. The other Lincoln was even more radical and transformational. This other Lincoln is the one I featured in my upcoming book, HOW THE POOR CAN SAVE CAPITALISM (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, May, 2014)

Immediately following the Civil War and signing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln signed the Freedman Bureau's Act of 1865. The Freedman's Act, amongst other things, created the Freedman's Bank. The Freedman's Bank mission was to 'teach freed slaves about money.' And that was the 1865 version of financial literacy, which today I call the global language of money.

"If you don't understand the language of money, and you don't have a bank account, then you're just an economic slave."

Financial literacy is the civil rights issue of the 21st century, or silver rights empowerment for all.

For President Lincoln to do this in 1865 was nothing short of radical and transformational; done during the most unbelievable time, and done for the most unbelievable of constituency at the time. And he didn't stop there.

The bank was going to provide freed slaves with critical knowledge of how America and the economy really worked: free enterprise and capitalism. Before politics and the vote, there was ownership and individual property rights.

The bank was then going to give freed slaves needed access to capital.

A general for Lincoln had promised every freed slave '40 acres and a mule' during the heat of the Civil War. It was not Lincoln's idea nor his policy, but he soon warmed to the idea. He saw it as a powerful component of the whole. Restoring America to her original dream, and good politics too.

Imagine this -- freed slaves in America, each with 40 acres and a mule (as compensation for their 150 years of free labor to the country), a real knowledge of free enterprise and capitalism and how money worked, and finally, access to capital -- backed by the collateralized security of their own land. Boom!

This cutting edge policy package would have transformed America.

The bank was so important to Lincoln that he moved it right across the street from the White House and the US Department of the Treasury, so he could keep an eye on it. He wanted to look out the window of the White House residence in the evening, and see the candles burning at the Freedman's Bank. This same building today houses the Bank of America headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, President Lincoln was killed within 2 weeks of signing the Freeman's Bank act, and everything changed after that. Some would suggest that this is why he was killed.

The President that followed Lincoln allowed the bank to drift (President Andrew Johnson was arguably our nation's worse US President), adding in his own words, 'as long as I am President, this nation will be run by white men.'

My new book will unpack the full story in more detail, framing it in the context of where we are today as a nation -- and where we need to go -- but even the bank's ultimate demise is inspiring and instructive. We Americans never give up, nor give in.

With no ongoing policy and federal support, and little leadership or encouragement from 1600 Pennsylvania (The White House), the bank began to fail. Within 10 years the bank was on its knees, but two amazing facts just stop you in your tracks.

Fact number one. Even as the bank failed, 70,000 black former slaves signed up to deposit their money and open a bank account there.

Even though the nation failed them, enslaved them, failed to educate them, and now didn't seem to want to support their future economic aspirations -- they still believed in America.

Fact number two. As the bank failed, Frederick Douglass, effectively the General Colin Powell of that day, signed on to run the bank. He knew it was failing, and decided to step in to run it anyway. It was a principled decision. And when the bank failed, Douglass was known to say, "the failure of the Freedman's Bank did more to set freed slaves back than 10 more years of slavery."

Frederick Douglass defines the difference between traditional definitions of our leaders, and what I now know to be authentic leadership (see my past LinkedIn Influencer piece on Real Leadership).

Rainbows after storms. You cannot have a rainbow without a storm first.

This Monday, March 10th, 2014, marks the first meeting of the new US President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans in Washington, D.C., at the US Department of the Treasury. A new President’s Council located directly across the street from the original Freedman’s Bank.

President Barack Obama deserves a lot of credit for doing this. But it was another US President who actually pioneered financial literacy more than 150 years ago, and he deserves some credit too. This was truly radical public policy in 1865, and had Lincoln lived, it would have changed America. Today, it can still change America.

But today, the problem is not black folks, it’s all of us folks. The only color that matters today — is the green color.

I am convinced that if you deal with issues of class today, you get race for free.

In the 21st century city, we need everyone rowing the boat of aspiration, hard work, enterprise, prosperity and nation building. And this is not just an American problem. The problem in Egypt, for example, is also jobs, economic energy and poverty. The new freedom is self-determination.

We can create a new generation of prosperity for all. We can finish the noble calling that President Lincoln first called forth.

The way forward starts with teaching the world’s poor and struggling class the global language of money.

For us to be better, we must be larger than our smallest ideals, and smaller than our largest insecurities.

Let’s go.

John Hope Bryant is the founder, chairman and CEO of Operation HOPE and Bryant Group Companies, Inc. Magazine/CEO READ bestselling business author of LOVE LEADERSHIP: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World (Jossey-Bass), and is the only 2010-2012 bestselling business author in America who is also African-American. His newest book, due out May, 2014, is HOW THE POOR CAN SAVE CAPITALISM, and will be published by Berrett Koehler Publishing).

Follow John Hope Bryant on LinkedIn Influencers here.

Photo: BradJacobson/Flickr Commons