Meet Arlo Washington, The Founder Of Arkansas’ First Black-Owned Bank

“We had a sign on the side of the college that said financial aid is available to those who qualify,” Washington shared with Next City. “So people started coming to the barber school asking for loans.”

In response, he had a number of questions, he said: “Who’s your banker? What’s your bank doing? Why your barber school? Why are you coming to us for loans? And they said, ‘There’s nowhere else for us to get loans, my bank won’t make me this loan.’”