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Every February we celebrate Black History month by honoring African-American heroes and remembering past victories in the fight struggle against racial discrimination. School children around the country read about Jackie Robinson, sing about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and learn about Ella Fitzgerald with the hope that the doors opened to them by these icons will offer them the opportunity for an even brighter future.

Considering all the progress that has been made by our community since our ancestors started arriving by slave ship, a 28-day month seems too short a time to fully appreciate the scope of our history. And indeed, ours is a history that continues to be written everyday, as African-Americans work toward a level playing field.

With two decades of political organizing and activism under my belt, it is clear to me that one of the next frontiers in the fight for civil rights is financial: America is a capitalist society, and until African-Americans have access to the same financial services as everyone else, and have the same level of financial literacy as everyone else, there is no hope for equality.

African-Americans must have effective access to banks, credit unions, and mortgage companies with fair lending practices. They must have enough financial education to know a bad financial deal when they see it, so they can recognize when they are being taken advantage of.

For instance, 20 years ago I became aware that my neighbors in Milwaukee and I were suffering at the hands of lenders and insurance companies that charged ridiculous and unreasonable rates in our poverty-stricken area. We were paying interest on loans and mortgages at a rate much higher than the residents of other suburbs across town, and we were being unfairly rejected by insurance providers.

The Midtown Neighborhood Association, of which I was a board member, identified the lack of local banking resources as a key element in our inability to get ahead and ensure financial stability-as individuals and as an African-American community. The experience motivated me to become a VISTA volunteer, and I went to work creating a local credit union, applying for and receiving a $100,000 loan for operating capital.

The advantage of this local credit union was that as neighbors we would lend higher amounts with better interest rates to people that would have been overlooked or seen as "risks" to bigger, faceless financial institutions. Our credit union enabled more community members to build assets by purchasing a home or a car, and opening savings accounts. In addition, the interest generated by the credit union stayed in the community, helping to increase everyone's wealth.

This is one success story from one small area in Milwaukee, but more activism and education is necessary nationwide to ensure that African-Americans have just as much chance as anyone else to achieve the American dream of success and self-sufficiency.

Currently, over half of those living in the United States without a bank account are minorities, and roughly 80 percent are families that make less than $25,000 a year. These are the people preyed upon by payday lenders, check-cashing businesses, pawnshops, and other fringe banking operations, many of whom charge higher interest and commit their customers to unreasonable terms.

Such services do not offer the tools for savings and wealth creation that African-Americans need to ensure a better future for themselves and for the next generation. Their continued use by low-income individuals demonstrates that we need to crack down on their questionable lending practices while we continue to further educate poor, working Americans about banking and credit issues.

Too many people in the African-American community have lost out on the opportunity to fully participate in the American dream simply because they lack the financial literacy that would enable them to make better financial choices, and overcoming this will be one of the next struggles in our movement for civil rights.

- Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.