Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice

Part Two: Deliberative Cooperative Economic Development

When the invincible force of cooperation met the immovable mountain of prejudice, fear, ignorance, and lack of self-confidence, the mountain melted into thin air. The invincible force forged ahead and is growing by leaps and bounds, and the Red Circle Cooperative idea of two years ago is a reality today. —rosenberg (1940, 118) Almost hourly the National Office of the Young Negroes’ Co-operative League is receiving the Macedonian Call from those who are convinced that the Negro’s economic future is largely in his own hands. Today, it is a letter from Mississippi or West Virginia; tomorrow, it is one from Arizona or California. But whether it is from North, South, East or West the substance is the same—the Young Negroes’ Co-operative League and its program is being looked upon as “the way out” for the Negro. —baker (n.d.) In his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois predicted that race would haunt the twentieth century; he also predicted that the pursuit of individual economic advancement would hinder African American growth and development (Du Bois 1907). At his twelfth Atlanta conference, Du Bois proposed that African Americans would do better to engage in cooperative economics . That one of the research conferences of Du Bois’s famous Atlanta conferences at the dawn of the twentieth century was devoted to discussing cooperative businesses among African Americans is a testament both to Du Bois’s recognition of the importance of cooperatives to the Black urban community and to the existence of significant cooperative activity in the Black community on which to report. Part II of this book focuses on organizational promotion and development of cooperatives in African American communities through Black co-op federations and agency-driven action, particularly in the early twentieth century. This section chronicles efforts by Black organizations to promote, educate PartTwo deliberative cooperative economic development 80 deliberative cooperative economic development about, and create cooperative businesses. Here we take note that there have been many serious efforts at Black cooperative development, especially during the Great Depression years. Chapters in this section document and analyze the development and accomplishments of early African American cooperatives and federations such as the Negro Cooperative Guild, the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League, and the Eastern Carolina Council (a federation of North Carolinian cooperatives). Chapters also include efforts by organizations such as the National Negro Business League and the International Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to promote and establish cooperatives and provide co-op education among their members. I explore the purposes and actions of these organizations, their accomplishments, and the strengths and weaknesses of the cooperative businesses that they established. Chapter 4 discusses the various kinds of education that Black cooperatives and their advocates engaged in. Chapter 5 focuses on the Young Negroes’ Cooperative League and its grand visions. Chapter 6 highlights the many other cooperative activities that took place among Blacks during the 1930s, particularly those sponsored by important Black organizations. In chapter 7, I focus on Black women’s cooperative activities, particularly in the 1930s but also in the 1950s and 1970s. The last chapter in this section returns us to rural cooperative efforts among Blacks. There are many lessons learned from this history of what I call the federation strategy for strengthening the Black cooperative movement. This section explores specific programs of some of the leading Black organizations of their time, from the perspective of their position on cooperative development and their actual economic activities. All of these organizations advocated and/or practiced some form of economic cooperation, many actually establishing cooperative businesses among the members or supporting cooperative businesses in Black communities. A Note About Cooperative Development in the 1930s There was some cooperative economic activity among African Americans in the early 1900s, but the Great Depression saw the most active cooperative development among Blacks. The Colored Merchants Association was established in 1927 by the National Negro Business League. The Young Negroes’ Co-operative League, founded in December 1930 by twenty-five to thirty African American youths in response to a call by George Schuyler, was strong in five cities by the early 1930s. The International Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters also organized cooperatives during this introduction 81 time, and their efforts continued into the 1940s (Chateauvert 1998; Cohen 2003). In every case...