Black Communities Consider a Return to Co-ops to Build Lasting, Independent Economic Power

Why history's cooperative economics is relevant to Black America today 

Like, Kwanzaa, leaders suggest that co-ops represent a return to traditional African practices and the return of self-sustainable Black communities. image credit: Shutterstock

Recently, someone asked if cooperative savings circles, popular in developing countries, could take hold in Black America. While the jury might be out on collectively handing over cash for personal use, wielding collective economic power – from supporting Black-owned businesses to boycotting businesses with racist practices to fundraising giving circles – versions of cooperatives and collectivism exist in Black communities in past and present. What about the future?  

Cooperative economics in Black history  

In an interview published by “Civil Teaching Rights,” Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, a researcher on cooperative economics, speaks on their history, particularly in Black communities and some of its benefits. Dr. Nembhard describes the history of co-ops and proclaims they are a historically significant economic model used by African people who were brought to this country to be enslaved centuries ago. They used cooperatives as a means of practicality and survivorship. If one person needed something, members of the community would pull their resources and money together to afford it. This was a repeated practice as needs came up for other members. The widespread adoption of this system by Black communities during the late 19th and early 20th centuries drove its evolution into a more systematic structure in the following decades. 

She suggests because this structure has so many characteristics significantly different from capitalism (which is the most common economic system), many people oppose it and don’t see the benefits.  

While a cooperative economy appears to be unfamiliar and unappealing, Dr. Gordon-Nembhard proclaims today half of the world is still connected to co-ops for their livelihood. 

At the Combahee River Colony in South Carolina, Black women formed a cooperative during the Civil War. Most of the men had joined the Union army. The women grew cotton on abandoned farms. This allowed them to grow cotton and use it for their needs on their own terms, not at the hands of masters. They used this cotton for clothing and other household items. This eventually grew to over a community of several hundred women.  

Another thriving co-op was the Freedom Quilting Bee. This was a group of women from sharecropping families in the south. They created quilts and sold them, combining their income gained from selling the quilts to purchase land and build a sewing factory. This allowed them to produce even more and earn a profit from that. They were even able to sell some of the land to families that had lost housing due to their civil rights activism.  

Cooperatives in the present 

Today there are still thriving co-ops. These include the Toxic Soul Busters of Massachusetts, who came together to detoxify soil in their community. The Ujamaa Collective is a co-op in Pittsburg created by craftswomen to create a marketplace to sell their merchandise. The largest co-op today is Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), founded in the Bronx, New York. This is founded and owned by care workers. The company offers home care services and general services to help their clients. They also offer small interest-free loans and free tax preparation services. Even more uniquely, they offer services to help other co-ops get started.  

Some are saying co-ops are starting to gain a resurgence as people think about economic volatility today, and as we start to see laws, regulations and policies that leave Black communities deeper in the margins. 

Even more so, there are organizations that help support the development of other co-ops. Nexus is an organization that offers a fellowship aimed at keeping Black-led cooperatives together. Their mission is to reinvigorate the suppressed history of Black cooperatives and mutual aid. The mission of some cooperatives now is to teach about collectivism and how these collectives can create mutual beneficial relationships for all individuals who are members. There is also the Black Coopnomics Academy. This academy shares modules through training, business support, and leadership development all aimed at building strong cooperatives in Black and brown communities.  

Some thought leaders suggest co-ops represent a return to traditional African practices. They promote the return of self-sustainable Black communities and not having to rely on outside people, money, or resources to ensure the needs of the community are met. 

A  Food Tank article highlights how co-ops act as resistance to food insecurity and other social-economic struggles that impact many Black communities today.  The article says “A lot of the neighborhoods in West Oakland had 20 to 30 liquor stores and an assortment of fast-food restaurants but no full-size grocery stores.” In response to this, a grocery store co-op was created by the very residents who were negatively impacted by the lack of grocery stores in their areas. Co-ops represent members of the community combining resources that create more of what they want to see in their own neighborhoods and having the control and ownership to be the creators of these changes.  

This quote by E.W Steptoe, an elderly leader of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives incapsulates the movement around creating co-ops as a means for survivorship and long-term self-sustainability: “Our cooperative is like the railroad station in our community. It will be here, even if the trains don’t come anymore and somebody far away decides to pull up the track, we will still have our cooperative in our community because we built it ourselves.”