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

Many of the players in this story are well known—among them W. E. B. Du Bois; A. Philip Randolph and the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Nannie Helen Burroughs; Fannie Lou Hamer; Ella Jo Baker and George Schuyler of the Young Negroes' Co-operative League; the Federation of Southern Cooperatives; and the Black Panther Party. Drawing on media reports and co-op records, Gordon Nembhard uncovers the challenges they faced and highlights their hard-won victories. This tenth anniversary edition of features a substantial preface that expands on material in the first edition and addresses the development of the Black co-op movement through the second decade of the twenty-first century. It remains an indispensable resource for readers interested in the history of the struggle for African American economic freedom and equity.