Over 150 years ago, the U.S. government set up a bank for formerly enslaved people to deposit the money they were now allowed to earn.

The Freedman’s Bank was supposed to help Black Americans save their money and build wealth. Instead, it led to one of the biggest bank robberies in American history. Thousands of people who had only recently been freed from slavery lost what little they had. And the government, which had promised to help, let the robbers get away with it.


This is the story of how that promise was broken, and how it still impacts U.S. society today.

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