Foreword / Darren Walker  vii
1. Self-Help Who?  1
2. A First Step  9
3. A Financial Institution  23
4. Turning Point  37
5. Innovation  49
6. An "Aha" Moment  63
7. "We Did Not Have to Be Geniuses"  71
8. Cy Pres  85
9. "Shit Disturbers"  97
10. A Box of Rattlesnakes  117
11. The Emperor's Naked  131
12. "We're Here Forever"  147
13. Self-Help Federal—A National Institution  159
14. The Mission  175
Final Notes  191
Notes  195
Index  205

Darren Walker

"Lending Power is Howard Covington’s uplifting and compelling account of a credit union that champions the underserved.... This is a positive, inspiring look at a socially conscious, soundly managed mission-driven organization." — Barry Silverstein, Foreword Reviews

"The book offers important perspectives on the Great Recession mortgage crisis.... Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."
  — E. C. Erickson, Choice

"The story not just of the rise of a radical credit union but also of its role in the community that shaped it, which saw it work with churches, civil rights activists, maverick philanthropists and city planners to deliver change. . . . Lively and absorbing...." — Co-Op News

"Lending Power is Howard Covington’s uplifting and compelling account of a credit union that champions the underserved.... This is a positive, inspiring look at a socially conscious, soundly managed mission-driven organization." —Barry Silverstein, Foreword Reviews

"The book offers important perspectives on the Great Recession mortgage crisis.... Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty."
  —E. C. Erickson, Choice

"The story not just of the rise of a radical credit union but also of its role in the community that shaped it, which saw it work with churches, civil rights activists, maverick philanthropists and city planners to deliver change. . . . Lively and absorbing...." —Co-Op News

"This would be an important book at any time but it is especially that in a season when outrage blossoms on every corner. It is a great story about how that emotion—in the hands and hearts of good people—can do much good. It provides, in the account of Martin Eakes' work, an appealing example of genius successfully confronting inequity. If Martin had lived in the early days of Christianity, he would have been one of the Apostles, and at times he would have been impatient with Jesus, but the world would have become fairer more quickly." — Tom Lambeth, director emeritus of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation

"Martin Eakes may not look, talk, or act like any of the titans of the financial industry, but he commands respect and even fear from them. The organization he leads, Self-Help, went from making affordable loans out of a Volkswagen Beetle to running payday lenders out the state and predicting the housing crisis years ahead of time. Howard E. Covington Jr.'s book should inspire anyone who wants to advance Dr. King's dream of economic equality for all Americans." — Wade Henderson, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

"The South's governance and history have long tilted against its working men and women, black and white. Martin Eakes of North Carolina has devoted a life of gritty determination to redressing the balance. As Howard E. Covington Jr. brings to meticulously researched life in Lending Power, Eakes has repeatedly countered past failures with new hope: Self-help housing that went national, alternatives to predatory lending, statehouse advocacy to answer big-money's insistent pressure. Read and be inspired." — Hodding Carter, former University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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