Ardie Clark Halyard

Ardie A. Clark Halyard (1896-1989) was a banker, activist and first woman president of the Milwaukee chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Biography

Halyard was born in Covington. She was the daughter of a sharecropper. Halyard graduated with a degree in education from Atlanta University. She married Wilbur Halyard in 1920. She and her husband lived in Beloit for some time, where they started a NAACP branch there. In 1923, she and her husband moved to Milwaukee. At the time when they had moved to Milwaukee, they discovered white realtors "openly discussed strategies to restrict the city's black population" to certain areas of town.

In 1925, she and her husband co-founded the first African-American owned bank in Milwaukee, the Columbia Savings and Loan Association. The couple opened the bank with a single ten-dollar bill. This bank allowed black people to apply for loans without facing racial discrimination. It was "virtually impossible for blacks to obtain a mortgage so they could purchase a home" at the time. In order to make their bank a success, neither she nor Wilbur Halyard "drew a salary" for the first 10 years they were open. Halyard worked as a director at Goodwill Industries for twenty years, while at the same time acting as "bookkeeper and secretary for Columbia." By the late 1960s, their bank's assets were valued at $4 million.

Halyard became the first women president of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP in 1951. During her time as president, she "increased dues-paying membership from 39 to 1,416 people." She remained active in the NAACP in other capacities, often as treasurer.