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

2012b). Cooperatives range across the globe from small-scale to multi-million-dollar businesses. There are more than one billion members of cooperatives throughout

voting power, and limiting the number of shares any one member may own (Emelianoff 1995, 83). In cooperative enterprises, the three major interests of any business—ownership, control, and beneficiary—are all “vested directly in the hands of the user” (ICA 2007). Cooperatives are organizations

and the development of communal societies. The mutual-aid movement involved a large proportion of the Black community and continued for centuries. I chronicle the myriad Black mutual-aid societies that sprang up during and after enslavement and examine their accomplishments, effectiveness, and the special role of African American women in founding

use. Although they were not a well-publicized economic structure before 2012, cooperatives are a significant force in the world economy. Building on the successful year of cooperatives, the ICA and UN have now declared the following ten years to be the international decade of cooperatives.

cooperative economic thought was integral to many major African American leaders and thinkers throughout history. These

Cooperative enterprises, however, modify capitalist principles by limiting the amount of dividends earned, limiting

than be slaves to market forces (Du Bois 1933b).

African American co-op movement. I consider the various organizations’ agendas and strategies over time, as well as the kinds of impact cooperative practices have had on Black communities. There are lessons to be learned from the history of cooperative economic models that can be applied to future discussions about community economic development in

Du Bois argued that cooperatives would provide the economic opportunities denied to African Americans, and would allow Blacks to serve the common good rather