An impressive building was constructed for the Bank on Clay Street and newspaper ads featured Mitchell Jr.[1] He also served as a city alderman for two terms, and was active in fraternal and professional organizations.

Mitchell was born a slave in Richmond, Virginia in 1863, shortly before the end of the American Civil War and of slavery.

In 1881, he created a map for his classmates and teacher which attracted the attention of minister to Austria A. M. Riley, who gave him a medal for his efforts.

His maps eventually secured him an apprenticeship in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. at the recommendation of John Wesley Cromwell.

He started his apprenticeship with encouragement and support from a number of prominent figures, including Blanche Bruce, John A. Logan, and Frederick Douglass.

On December 5, 1884, at the age of 21, Mitchell joined the Richmond Planet, a newly founded black newspaper and was made an editor.

[3] "It was under his tenure that the Planet gained its well-deserved reputation as a proponent of racial equality and of rights for the African-American community.

In reply, and borrowing a line from Shakespeare, Mitchell had this to say: 'There are no terrors, Cassius, in your threats, for I am so strong in honesty that they pass by me like the idle wind, which I respect not.'

Then, armed with two Smith & Wesson pistols, he boarded a train for Smithville and undeterred, walked the five miles from the station to the site of the hanging.

[3] In 1896, together with local clergy including James H. Holmes, Mitchell appealed on the behalf of the widow of Solomon Marable for the return of his body after his execution and partial dissection by students at the Medical College of Virginia.

Suffering the loss of black business, but refusing to give up its Jim Crow policy, the trolley company went into receivership.