Bourbon Colored Mutual Savings and Loan Association, Paris, KY

The first Negro bank, excluding the Freedmen's Bank, is thought to be the Bourbon Colored Mutual Savings and Loan Association established in Paris, KY, on March 12, 1887, with John Spears as president and Green Jackson as secretary [source: Kentuckian Citizen, 04/27/1887; and Ninth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1893, p.106]. The savings and loan association in Paris predates, by 34 years, what was thought to be the first African American bank, the First Standard Bank in Louisville. There was also the Bourbon Colored Mutual Building and Loan Association [source: Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 1894, p.368]. The Bourbon Colored Mutual Savings and Loan Association was in operation at least until 1895 when it was listed in the Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 1895, p.102.

*Attached to this entry is a .pdf copy of the "Bourbon County Mutual Savings and Loan Association. Articles of Incorporation." The copy is provided by Lindrell Blackwell, a community historian from Paris, KY. The original document is available at the Bourbon County Clerk's Office that is located in the Courthouse in Paris, KY. {Deed 69, v.2, pp.389-391}

**The document is dated March 14, 1887 and has the following list of members: John Spears; T. Augustus Reid, Vice President; John E. Durgins; Green Jackson; Moses Cunningham; Richard Wheeler; Henry C. Smith.