ShoreBank’s Evolution from Community-Based Banking to the Microfinancing Arena

In the midst of the radical social atmosphere of the 1960s, a group of Chicagoans, Ron Grzywinski, Milton Davis, James Fletcher, and Mary Houghton, came together to found South Shore Bank in the 1973 with a goal to provide loans to minority owned small businesses.

Ron Grzywinski had banking experience with Hyde Park Bank. Milton Davis was a University of Chicago employee and the Chicago leader of the Congress of Radical Equality (CORE).  James Fletcher had previously worked in President Johnson’s administration as part of the internal transition team and with the Citizen’s Action Program in the Office of Economic Opportunity.  Mary Houghton, at that time, was running a daycare program for low income families.

These four individuals had often met to discuss ways in which they could help the needs of urban society by becoming a financial intermediary for social development and community actions. These discussions led to the creation of a minority lending program at Hyde Park Bank. With the influence of Al Raby, a Chicago black rights leader, they looked for the next step to continue their goals of providing loans to small businesses in neighborhood development. Grzywinski stated, ” community-based organizations appeared to be the only organizations in society that cared about the broad range of needs that exist in urban communities”.

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