Independence Bank of Chicago

CTL-E-0194 · Business · bank · 1960s–1990s

Verified evidence grade of this record

Black-owned bank founded 1964 to serve the Chatham-Avalon community

The record

Also known as: Independence Bank

Relationships

Chatham — located in
The former Independence Bank of Chicago building at 7936 S. Cottage Grove is documented as sitting in the Chatham community area.

Sources

FDIC bank records; Face2Face Africa — Alvin Boutte

Record CTL-E-0194 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: Verified · CTL research: BCI-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “Independence Bank of Chicago (CTL-E-0194),” October 4, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-0194/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

Black enterprise — the shops, banks, and trades that built it. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Chuck Berry, publicity photo, 1957Photo: Universal Attractions (publicity photo), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Press room of the Richmond Planet newspaper, 1899Photo: Library of Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Inside a dress shop on 47th Street, Chicago's Black business corridor, Chicago, 1941Photo: Russell Lee, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — none to date.