black coop pioneers in the struggle for economic justice

7/27/2019 Black Coop Pioneers in the Struggle for Economic Justice

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Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Ph.D.John Jay College, CUNY

[email protected] ASU School of Social Transformation

February 14, 2011

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



●Address Marginality and marketfailure●Economic Organizing for Mutual

Aid●Economic Cooperation & Early

Co-ops●Black Women●Black Youth

●Economic Independence

Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Cooperative ownership can contributeto anti-poverty strategies andcommunity building strategies.

●Throughout history, among all groups,cooperatives have facilitated

economic development, stabilization,and independence.




●Co-ops addressunderdevelopment, economic

isolation and marginality, &market failure – when market

activities do not provide for theneeds of a community.




A larger proportion of Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and some Asian American groupscompared with Whites in the U.S. are

-poor and unemployed,-have lower wealth levels and

-lower business ownership,

-poorer health, and-higher incarceration levels,

in good times as well as bad.




●Marginalization forces subaltern groupssuch as African Americans to findalternative economic solutions.

●Free and enslaved African Americanspooled their money to buy their own andtheir family members’ freedom.

●“Freedmen” established mutual societiesto help cover costs of illness and death.




●Forced segregation made it imperativethat African Americans join together economically, because the mainstreameconomy was exploitative, discriminatory,and exclusionary.

●Voluntary segregation was often the wayto maintain economic independence andcontrol self help efforts –maroons,

communal societies. Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Chance to design & manage neededservices in culturally, racially&geographically sensitive ways.

●Created communities, enclaves, Blackbusinesses and other economic activityinsulated from racial discrimination and

neglect.●From beginning free and enslaved African Americans shared resources.




●African Americans have a long and stronghistory of cooperative ownership,especially in reaction to market failures

and economic racial discrimination.●It has often been a hidden history and one

complicated by economic marginalization,

and thwarted by racial discrimination andwhite supremacist violence.




●Often begun by educationalinstitutions or started with a studygroup to study economic conditions

and cooperative economics.●Used mainstream cooperative

literature.●Black leaders and writers promoted

cooperative Education.Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●There have been many proposals for strategies or a movement to focus African

American economic development around African American interests and needs.

●Early interest in cooperatives as a strategyfor economic independence.




●W.E.B. Du Bois proposed economiccooperation as the only effective andpractical solution. Blacks could positionourselves at the forefront of developingnew forms of industrial organization thatwould free us from marginal economicstatus.

●Started Negro Cooperative Guild in 1918.




●George Schuyler (Pittsburgh Courier) callson “Young Negroes” to save the race witheconomic cooperation.

●Founded in December 1930 by about 25-30 African American youth.

●Its goal was to form a coalition of local

cooperatives and buying clubs looselyaffiliated in a network of affiliate councils;to start with 5,000 charter members,

paying a $1 initiation fee.Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●By 1932 the League had formedcouncils in New York, Philadelphia,Monessen (PA), Pittsburgh, Columbus(OH), Cleveland, Cincinnati, Phoenix,New Orleans, Columbia (SC),

Portsmouth (VA), and Washington,DC;

●With a total membership of 400.Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Founded in 1967 – to present●Non-profit organization of state

associations to support Predominantly

Black cooperatives in southern states.●Organic farming, marketing, agricultural

processing, fishing, sewing, handicrafts,

land buying, grocery, credit unions.●Protect Black-owned land.●Policy advocacy.




Logo Ralph Paige, Exec Dir.




●Mutual Aid Societies & BeneficialSocieties provided joint purchasing andmarketing, revolving loan funds, and

sickness, widow & orphan, and deathbenefits.

●Often operated through Black religious

organizations and schools; ofteninformal.

●Many headed by Black women.




●Du Bois (1907) documentedhundreds of mutual aid societiesand cooperative projects throughreligious and benevolenceinstitutions, beneficial and

insurance societies, secretsocieties, schools, and financialinstitutions.




●“Provide people with the basic needs of everydaylife - clothing, shelter, and emotional and physicalsustenance” (Jones 1985: 127).

●Efforts at community care (Berry 2005: 64) .●Free African Society, Philadelphia 1787 (2nd

oldest).●By the 1790s women established their own mutual

aid and beneficial societies around the country(Berkeley 1985, Jones 1985).




●Black women established day nurseries,orphanages, homes for the aged and infirm,hospitals, cemeteries, night schools andscholarship funds (Berkeley 1985, Jones 1985,

Lerner 1974).●Pooled “meager resources,” sponsored fund

raisers, solicited voluntary contributions (Berkeley:

85).●Used modest dues that even the “poorest womenmanaged to contribute” to meet vital social welfareneeds (Jones 1985).

●Black women’s leadership developed.Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Black capitalism was a strategy of racial

economic solidarity/cooperation●Used Negro joint stock ownership

companies: the Chesapeake Marine

Railway and Dry Dock Company

shipyard in Baltimore (1865-1883),

Coleman Manufacturing Company inConcord, NC (1897), and the UnitedNegro Improvement Association’s “Black

Star Line” and “Negro Factories”Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Mutual insurance companies were theearliest official cooperative businessesamong Blacks and whites in the U.S.

●Starting in the late19th century African

Americans organized more formalcooperative businesses that followed theEuropean “Rochdale Principles of Cooperation” (that became the

international co-op principles).Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●The first official of cooperatives were farmcooperatives and cooperative marketing boards,consumer cooperative grocery stores,

cooperative schools, and credit unions.●While efforts at collective economic action were

often thwarted by racial discrimination, white

supremacist sabotage and violence, effortspersisted throughout the centuries.




●KoL organized integratedcooperatives and labor unions-1800s-early 1900s.

●200 industrial co-ops organized bythe Knights of Labor between 1886and 1888 (Curl 2009: 4).

●Controversial –opposition withinand outside trade unionmovement.




●Some southern KoL chapters were allBlack – by 1887 between 60 and 90thousand AAs were members.

●Established cooperatives but few records.●A cooperative cotton gin in Stewart’s

Station, Alabama.●Cooperative villages near Birmingham

(Curl 2009: 101).




●The Colored Farmers National Alliance and Cooperative Union(1886-1891) was formed to aid Black

farmers, particularly with mortgagepayments and marketing;

●And to counter the violence andexploitation practiced by white landowners and vigilantes (KKK).




●Shared agricultural techniques andinnovations, and coordinatedcooperative efforts for planting and

harvesting (Ali 2003: 77).●The Union promoted alliances between

farmers and laborers, was active in local

and regional politics – to maintain rightsfor African Americans after Reconstruction.




●Probably over 1 million members – largestBlack organization of its time.●Branches established cooperative stores/

exchanges in the ports of Norfolk,Charleston, Mobile, New Orleans,Houston.

●Members could buy goods at reducedprices and secure loans to pay off their mortgages (Ali 2003: 89; Holmes 1973).




●154 African American-ownedcooperative businesses:○14 “producer cooperatives”;○3 “transportation cooperatives”;○103 “distribution or consumer

cooperatives,” and○34 “real estate and creditcooperatives.”




●In 1901 Odd Fellows Lodge established theMercantile Cooperative Company in Ruthville, VA – cooperative store.

●Shares at five dollars each (no one member morethan 20), could be paid in installments (Craig1987).

●Also bought trucks; built a school.

●Flourished for 20 years.●Achieved a level of economic independence thatlater aided in the struggle for political rights andracial justice” (Craig:134).




●Co-op meat markets, Memphis 1914.●Sold double amount of original shares.●Buy shares in installments limit ten.

●By August 1919, five stores were inoperation serving about 75,000 people.

●Members of the guilds associated with

each store met monthly to studycooperative economics.




●Founded by the Nat’l Negro Business

League, Montgomery, AL 1927.●An association of independent grocers

organized into a buying and advertisingcooperative.

●Created to support independent Blackgrocery stores with mutual support andcollective marketing - in a harsh marketduring difficult times.

●By 1930 253 stores were part of the CMAJessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●1930s very active period for cooperatives –depression increased need for cooperativegrassroots economic activity.

●Throughout the 1930s and 1940s there were Blackfarmers’ cooperatives, credit unions, co-op grocerystores, schools, etc.

●Ella Baker and George Schuyler developed the

Young Negroes’ Cooperative League in 1930 topromote cooperatives in Black communities.




●1935 Consumers’ Cooperative TradingCompany in Gary Indiana

●1936 considered the largest grocery

business operated by African American inthe U.S. -total sales of $160,000.●The cooperative consisted of a credit

union, grocery store, and gas station.●Grocery co-op began to pay dividends of 2

percent on shares of stock owned in 1936.




●Two Black schools (Bricks, Tyrrell County)established farmer’s cooperatives, credit unions,buyers clubs, health insurance, and a state wideBlack cooperative federation.

●North Carolina Council worked with state agdepartment to develop credit unions andcooperatives.

● In1936: 3 Black credit unions, by 1948 - 98●48 additional co-op enterprises: 9 consumer

stores, 32 machinery co-ops, 4 curb markets, 2health associations and 1 housing project .




●Black labor leader and organizer A. PhilipRandolph, and the Ladies Auxiliary of theBSCP promoted cooperatives, especiallyin Chicago in the 1930s.

●Walker Credit Union, Montreal, CA 1930s – savings and financial education,budgeting.

●The Brotherhood Cooperative Buying Clubin Chicago 1945-49.




●Began January 1973, Milwaukee, WI.●Started with thirty new cabs.●Competitive advantage: the drivers were

willing to take passengers to any part of the city (unlike the white cab companies).

●After 18 months of relatively successful

operation, they could not afford the highinsurance premium.




●Gendered occupational segregation, evenafter major gains in 1980s.

●Highest poverty levels (women & children),

gender income gap still wide in many areas.●Most women-owned businesses are small

and in the service or retail sectors; revenues

are disproportionately low.●Gender wealth gap wide.




●Need economic activity that canbridge and complement the world of

care and concern, and socialreproduction.●Women need control over workplace,

income, and assets.




●Ella Jo Baker - Young Negroes’ Co-

operative League 1930-32●Nannie Helen Burroughs – 1936-40

Cooperative Industries of DC

●Halena Wilson – Ladies Auxiliary to theBrotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters 1940s

●Estelle Witherspoon – Freedom Quilting

Bee 1960-90s●Fannie Lou Hamer – Freedom Farm Co-op

and Pig Banking 1970sJessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2009



●One mission of the League was to keepcontrol of the organization in the hands of

young people; and “to bring women intothe League on equal basis with men” (fullinclusion of women).

●Ella Jo Baker, Executive Director, speaksabout role of women in co-ops at firstnational convention.




●Chartered in 1936 as a self-helpcooperative in Lincoln Heights,

Washington, DC.●Started with a federal government grant toprovide jobs for unemployed and

unskilled.●Became a consumer’s cooperative &agricultural marketing cooperative.




●As early as 1938 the “Instructions andDecisions” of the Auxiliary included

subscribing to journals/newslettersabout consumer economics andcooperatives; and studying credit

unions and consumer’s cooperation.




●The Brotherhood Cooperative BuyingClub, founded by women from theChicago Ladies Auxiliary

■Planning started in 1942■Opened in 1945■“The Chicago Auxiliary in so far as it is

known is the first group of Negrowomen connected with labor to initiatea consumer cooperative enterprise”(Wilson September 1947).




●The first BSCP credit union wasestablished by the Montreal chapter.

●Part of project to create credit unionsto help members adjust to economiccrisis through savings plans and

budgeting.




●Founding member of the FSC/LAF●Sewing cooperative started in 1967

by sharecropping women to sell their quilts for extra income.●Built a sewing plant, and provided

other services to the community –child care center, after schoolprograms, summer reading prog.




●FQB bought 23 acres of land to buildsewing factory and to help sharecroppers (evicted for registering to vote)

to farm in peace and to own their ownland.

●At its height with 150 members, the co-op was the largest employer in the town

of Alberta, AL, in 1992.




●“Cooperative ownership of land opensthe door to many opportunities for group development of economic

enterprises which develop the totalcommunity rather than create

monopolies that monopolize theresources of a community.”




●Purpose of helping displaced farm workersbecome self-reliant.

●Raise pigs and share.

●Buy up land owned by whites, put it in thehands of African Americans and usecooperative agriculture to keep the

development sustainable.




●A worker-owned home health carecooperative in the South Bronx, New York

●Started by a “social service agency to

create decent jobs and provide neededservices in an impoverished community” in1985.

●Seventy-five percent of the employee-

owners had previously been dependent onpublic assistance, as home careparaprofessionals.




●The cooperative employs more than 1000 African American and Latina women.

●Over 700 are the owners of the company.●Leads the industry in above average wages,

benefits, career ladder opportunities, leadershiptraining, and low turnover.

●Annual dividends returned to owners average25% of initial equity investment ($250).

●Uses policy advocacy.




●There is increasing evidence thatstudents who engage inentrepreneurial projects, especiallycooperative businesses, gain benefitsincluding increased learning, more

motivation, and incentive (andsometimes financing) to go on tocollege.




●Co-op programs and/or curricula for youth both help motivate them to beacademic achievers, and provide

economic experiences where theylearn by doing and participatedemocratically in cooperative

businesses,●As well as develop leadership,

advocacy and entrepreneurial skills -

and earn some moneyJessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●The young people’s branch of theConsumers’ Cooperative TradingCompany, a Black-owned cooperative in

Gary Indiana, operated its own ice-creamparlor and candy store.

●In addition, members of Consumers’

Cooperative held weekly educationalmeetings for 18 months before openingany of the businesses.




●In 1933 they instituted a cooperativeeconomics course in Roosevelt HighSchool’s evening school.

●By 1936 it had the largest enrollmentof any academic class offered by thehigh school.




●In the Fall of 1992 students fromCrenshaw High School (SouthCentral Los Angeles) revitalized theschool garden to help rebuild their community after the 1992 uprising,

and in particular to donate the food tothe homeless.




●Grassroots economic

organizing●Economic protection and

economic independence●Asset building




●Cooperative strategies enable localsmall scale economic activity, ofteninitiated by a community-basedorganization (church, school, secretsociety).

●Bottom up approach, effectivelymeeting the needs of the grassroots.




●Provide protection, economic help for the dispossessed and landless, andservices for the under-served.

●Earn better prices for Black madeproducts, and

●Better wages.●Control over income, and asset

ownership.Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Cooperative agricultural productionand marketing also help individualsmaintain land ownership and make aliving from farming.

●Bought land for sharecroppers

evicted from white lands.




●African American cooperatives throughouthistory have provided livelihoods, landownership, home ownership, savings

opportunities, and other mechanisms for economic independence for their members – even if modest.

●Address market failure and●Racial discrimination.




●Increase incomes and options for African Americans.

●Create enclaves and insulateBlack businesses and other economic activity from racialdiscrimination.

●Pool resources, share risks.Jessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



●Cooperatively owned processingplants help farmers to earn moremoney from their produce, retain

earnings, and invest in moreequipment, supplies, and land.

●Often dividends are paid to members

from African American ownedcooperatives – extra return oninvestment.




●The cooperatives anchor economic activity in a community,

●Employ community members,●Provide financing; and●Promote leadership development.




●Team building, consensusbuilding, problem solving, and

other skills gained fromcooperative activity aretransferable to other acts.

●Many co-ops engage in policyadvocacy also.




●Ínternal education, study circles, training,

public education, and publicity;●Human energy, enthusiasm, and trust;●Reaching and incorporating youth;●Empowerment of women;●Adequate resources, training and financing;

and●Creating alternative sustainable economic

activity in the face of discrimination and

sabotageJessica Gordon Nembhard (c) 2010



Many of the cooperative businessesemerging in health care, child care andtemporary services, for example, are

leading their sectors in changing thenature of work and increasing thereturns to such work and ownership –for African Americans, women, andyouth.




Rural and Urban

black coop pioneers in the struggle for economic justice

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