A Black-owned credit union finally will Arise in North Minneapolis

By David Pierini, Editor

North Minneapolis will soon be home to the first Black-owned credit union in the state.

Officials announced Wednesday that Arise Community Credit Union received its charter from the National Credit Union Administration. Arise will begin first as an online bank before eventually moving to a brick-and-mortar location on the Northside.

“We are elated,” said Debra Hurston, executive director of the Association for Black Economic Power, created to establish the credit union. “We genuinely thank the community members whose vision and grassroots efforts made this achievement possible.”

A “thank-you event” and a chance to meet Arise CEO Dan Johnson will be held on March 28 from 5-7 p.m. at Shiloh Temple International Ministries.

Community leaders took steps to create a Black-owned bank in 2017 following the police shooting death of Philando Castille during a traffic stop. As the original leaders reflected on police injustice, they wanted to address systemic racism in the banking history that kept Black and Brown people from loans and other programs that helped white clients build generational wealth.

Village Financial was set to apply for a charter when the board fired the executive director and CEO after allegations of fraud and mismanagement in 2019. Hurston was hired two years later to revive the movement and lead ABEP through the regulatory hurdles.

Johnson was hired for his experience in the insurance industry and managing a Wells Fargo branch bank.

He said regulators required Arise to start as an online credit union to build traction before opening a branch.

Arise needs to get all its technology in place before it can begin opening accounts, a process that will take six to nine months.

Close to 3,000 potential members have pledged to open accounts with Arise.

“We need to dot every ‘I’ and cross every ‘T’ before we can hit the ground running,” Johnson said. “We will be in compliance and meet the expectations of (regulators). Once those things are done, people can start becoming members.”

Johnson said the first account would go to Hurston.