In the Administration of President Chester Alan Arthur, the private bank of John H. James did a thriving business at the downtown corner of Whitehall & Alabama Streets, Atlanta. People used to say "Put your money there — they pay 6%." Then came the panic of 1884. The James Bank closed its doors. Its debt to its depositors, including three Negro Sunday-school societies: about $400,000.
The depositors formed a Georgia corporation to take over the bank's assets.
Principal item: a block in Atlanta's Whitehall Street shopping area. But many of them said the stock certificates of the new Central Bank...