W.W. Banks was a noted Black scholar, businessman

I find it heart­en­ing to learn the achieve­ments of peo­ple who rise from hum­ble begin­nings.  Few are more inspir­ing than the life of William Webb Banks (1862−1928), the Winchester native who was born into slav­ery and became a not­ed schol­ar, jour­nal­ist, busi­ness­man, church­man, civ­il rights activist and his­to­ri­an.  It seems appro­pri­ate to begin with his unusu­al­ly long obit­u­ary in the Winchester Sun.

“In the death of Webb Banks, Winchester and Clark coun­ty suf­fers the loss of a most dis­tin­guished char­ac­ter.  Webb’s father, Paducah Banks (named for a famous Indian chief­tain) was reared in the south­west­ern part of the coun­ty in the Webb fam­i­ly, one of whom was at one time or pos­si­bly at present, if liv­ing, a promi­nent attor­ney of Lexington.  His moth­er, Catherine, was reared in the Bush fam­i­ly, which is anoth­er of the more promi­nent Clark coun­ty fam­i­lies.  Of the three chil­dren born to this union, Webb was the only one to reach matu­ri­ty, the oth­ers hav­ing died in infan­cy or ear­ly; youth.

“The advan­tage of let­ters was giv­en Webb by the white peo­ple with whom they lived in the late six­ties and upon their removal to Winchester, he became a pupil of the famous Carey.  The desire for a high­er edu­ca­tion was plant­ed in his heart under this pio­neer instruc­tor and by dint of hard work, Webb made his way through State (now Simmons) University about 1885.

“He unit­ed with the mem­ber­ship of the First Baptist Church in 1879 and became at once an enthu­si­as­tic adher­ent to that faith.  This dou­bly tied him to the work of his Alma Mater and his pas­sion for the suc­cess of the denom­i­na­tion in gen­er­al nev­er abat­ed through­out his whole life.

“In 1886 he was select­ed to head the pub­lic school of Winchester, but find­ing his tem­pera­ment ill fit­ted for the task, resigned before he had com­plet­ed the term.  In 1889 he head­ed the move­ment that result­ed in the orga­ni­za­tion of the Broadway Baptist Church and was the first Sunday School super­in­ten­dent.  At this time he was also pres­i­dent of the largest Sunday School con­ven­tion in the State of Kentucky.

“He inau­gu­rat­ed plans for a stock cor­po­ra­tion to run a gro­cery busi­ness.  The project failed how­ev­er.  He suc­ceed­ed in rais­ing means enough on his per­son­al notes to start in busi­ness for him­self and met with some suc­cess.  In 1891 he suc­ceed­ed in launch­ing out in the area of Journalism, when he estab­lished ‘The Chronicle.’  His writ­ings evoked favor­able com­ment and were wide­ly copied by oth­er racial jour­nals.  He sold this paper to a new­ly formed com­pa­ny, known as the ‘Gate City Journal’ in 1892 and went to Indianapolis to reside.

“He returned to Winchester in 1896 and again entered the gro­cery busi­ness.  He mar­ried short­ly after this.  His wife, Annie Simms, pre­ced­ed him to the grave about six years ago.  He was select­ed as Steward of the Elks Club and while act­ing in this capac­i­ty, he found time to report to sev­er­al race jour­nals, and iden­ti­fied him­self with the ‘National Negro Business Men’s League.’

“In 1907 he was appoint­ed by Gov. Beckham as one of Kentucky’s spe­cial rep­re­sen­ta­tives to the Jamestown expo­si­tion.  It was always a delight to Webb to show his com­mis­sion to his friends and doubt­less it is still to be seen among his effects.  For many years he edit­ed the col­ored col­umn of this paper.  His writ­ings were so clean and whole­some and full of infor­ma­tion that many white peo­ple nev­er con­sid­ered that they had fin­ished read­ing its news until they had perused his column.

“He prid­ed in ever [sic] advance­ment made by the race and was enthu­si­as­tic, as many believe to a fault, in every local achieve­ment.  Webb did only what he thought was right and his place in this com­mu­ni­ty can­not be eas­i­ly filled.  The funer­al rites were sim­ple, brief, con­cise, and Earth received the house in which there once dwelt a man who had with­in the spir­it of Godliness.”

Some of Banks’ oth­er achieve­ments are list­ed in his entry in the Who’s Who of the Colored Race (1915):  issued the first call for orga­ni­za­tion of Negro busi­ness men and women in Ky.; tes­ti­fied before the state leg­is­la­ture against the sep­a­rate coach law; com­mis­sion­er at the Interstate Exposition, Raleigh, N.C. 1884; cus­to­di­an of the Kentucky build­ing at the Jamestown Exposition, 1908; com­mis­sion­er to the Emancipation Exhibition, New York, 1913; del­e­gate to this Half-Century Celebration of Negro Freedom, Chicago, 1915.  While serv­ing as long-time edi­tor of the “Colored Column” in the Sun, Banks pub­lished his 20-part Brief History of the Clark County Negro.

Winchester jobs for African Americans were scarce.  In 1905 the col­lege-edu­cat­ed Banks was hired as jan­i­tor at the new Elks Building on Main Street, and at his death was serv­ing in the same capac­i­ty at the Citizens National Bank.  He and his wife Annie are buried in Section I in the Winchester Cemetery.