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Jesse H. Mitchell began his lifelong habit of tandem learning and earning as a young man in Texas. Born in 1881 in the tiny town of Navasota, Mitchell went to work for R. G. Dun and Company, the forerunner of Dun & Bradstreet, and, at the same time, went to Prairie View College to study education. He graduated with honors in 1904 and became a teacher.
But Mitchell did not stay long in the classroom. In 1907 he left Texas for Washington and worked in the Navy Department while attending Howard University Law School. With law degree in hand, Mitchell went into real estate. He formed the Columbia Realty and Investment Company in 1919 at 7th and I Streets, Northwest.
During the Depression, Mitchell realized that while times were tough for everyone, they were especially tough for blacks who needed loans for homes or businesses. He joined a group informing a D.C. bank to meet the needs of the black community. And when that bank could not re-open following the Bank Holiday of 1933, Mitchell helped organize a new one - the Industrial Bank of Washington. The Industrial Bank of Washington opened its doors to the public on August 20, 1934.
The first Board of Directors elected Jesse Mitchell president and he remained in the job for the next 20 years, as the bank's assets grew from $250,000 to $6 million and it became one of the two largest black-owned banks in the country. Until the mid-fifties, the Industrial was the only black-owned and operated bank in the District.
Jesse Mitchell's son, Doyle Mitchell, went to work at the Industrial Bank as soon as he graduated from Wharton. When Jesse Mitchell became sick in 1954, he named his son president. He still heads the bank today with three branches and assets of $120 million.
A third generation of Mitchells is now working at the Industrial. "I hope they will go along as I and my father did," says Doyle Mitchell, "to serve the citizens of the District of Columbia in a banking manner."
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