On 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. march, W. Side credit union expanding financial access

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Monday marks 60 years since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led 250,000 people in the March on Washington.

Several events are being held in Chicago to mark this day, including a march to celebrate the opening of a credit union near King's home.

This is helping expand financial access for the Black community.

One pastor points out that for every dollar loaned to Chicago white neighborhoods, just pennies were given to Black neighborhoods. That's why when this credit union opens in the spring, it's achieving part of MLK's dream.

"The substance was we have come to cash a check," said the Rev. Marshall Hatch, with New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church.

It's the soft launch with a hard statement: opening the first account to the tune of $250,000 for the Leaders Network in partnership with the Great Lakes Credit Union.

"All kinds of lending, home loans, business loans, other things, small personal loans, whatever is needed," Leaders Network strategic advisor Michelle Collins said.

Collins said getting the credit union is the best way Austin could commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

RELATED: Thousands converge on National Mall to mark the March on Washington's 60th anniversary

"You can never grow if you don't have access to capital," Collins said.

"My daughter is going to bring her check once it opens because she already has a bank account, college fund, savings," Austin resident Zerlina Smith-Members said.

Smith-Members said when she purchased a home 15 years ago, it was so her now-14-year-old daughter would learn generational wealth. Now, she said, this new credit union is going to help the teen achieve even more than that.

"I want her to be able to walk into a bank and not have that mentality of what we've been pandemically trained to do things," Smith-Members said.

Smith-Members said there is a mentality that financial wealth isn't possible.

"The Chicago business and banking community lent more to Lincoln Park, a single white neighborhood, than it did all Black neighborhoods combined," Hatch said.

But things are now changing, as this credit union is about breaking through barriers.

"It's member-owned; it's yours, and it's open for business," said Robin Hollis, with the Illinois Credit Union League.

While the physical location of the credit union will open for business in February, all financial services are available now.