Charles Banks

Charles Banks (March 25, 1873 – October 18, 1923) was an American bank founder and businessman. He founded the Bank of Mound Bayou, and the Mound Bayou Oil Mill and Manufacturing Company in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Banks was a member of the executive committee of Booker T. Washington's National Negro Business League. Charles was born on the property of Eliza and John Clark, a prominent white family and his namesake.

In 1893, Banks married Trenna Ophelia Booze, a school teacher and the older sister of Eugene Parker Booze.

Booze and Banks founded the Bank of Mound Bayou in 1904, one of the first Black owned banks in the state.

In June 1915, they reorganized and opened a new bank called the Mound Bayou State Bank, which remained open for about a decade.

Mound Bayou Loan and Investment Company was founded by Banks and William Thornton Montgomery, in order to maintain local land and farms within the African American community, and in turn prevented the intrusion of white ownership.

Other businesses Banks served as 3rd vice president of the National Negro Business League from 1901 to 1905, and as 1st vice president from 1907.

Late life and death In 1917, Isaiah T. Montgomery and Banks had a political dispute and ended their partnership; resulting in Montgomery no longer supported broader town ventures.

Banks was the subject of the David H. Jackson Jr.'s book, A Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine: Charles Banks of Mississippi (2002).