Word: bank
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Located on Warren Street in central Roxbury, Unity Bank is an unimpressive grey building with large arched doorways. Inside, the walls are just beginning to crack in some places and the bank seems small. Up the street, a drab, pre-fabricated government housing project stands alone, near completion, in the middle of a large barren lot. And directly across from Unity lies another lot--this one empty and muddy. But Unity's forlorn appearance and surroundings are deceiving...
Though it is basically a commercial bank like Harvard Trust and Cambridge. Unity is distinguished by its innovations in banking and its direct involvement with the community. Established to give equal economic opportunity to the ghetto-dwellers of Roxbury-Dorchester, it is, as its slogan states, 'The Bank With a Purpose...
From its extra hours (Unity opens daily at 8:30 a.m. and is open on Saturdays) to the free financial counseling that it provides, Unity is oriented to the working people of the Roxbury community. The bank sponsors free seminars on consumer education, investment, maintenance of credit, and the hows's and why's of using a bank. Its loan officers provide free counsel to existing and prospective black entrepreneurs and enable them to enter business through progressive loan policies. They hope this will have the two-fold effect of increasing the percentage of black owned businesses in Roxbury...
UNITY was conceived two years ago by John T. Hayden, a black graduate of the Harvard Business School. After writing a term paper about the economic needs of the ghetto community, Hayden decided to establish a community-based commercial bank in Roxbury. He contacted Sneed, who, at, that time, owned a small real estate business in Roxbury and was involved in civil rights boycotts and bussing attempts...
Hayden and Sneed laid the plans for Unity, contacting faculty members at the Business School and black professional people in Roxbury for advice. The Unity Bank Association, consisting of 88 organizers of the bank was formed in late 1966, and carried on the work without Hayden when he was drafted soon after graduation...