Collective Courage – Jessica Gordon Nembhard

Its letterhead describes the guild as “a voluntary, self-help, cooperative, non-profi t, membership fraternity.” Archival letters show that Baker was the captain of Pure Food Co-operative Grocery Stores, Inc. on Lenox Ave. She also became the chair of education and publicity for Har- lem’s Own Cooperative (Cohen 2003, 50; Library of Congress 2012). Harlem’s Own Cooperative Harlem’s Own started out as a buying club affi liated with the YNCL.

It was established under the auspices of the Dunbar Housewives’ League in 1935, mostly as a distributor of milk (Grant 1998, 35). Th e “Consumers’ Coopera- tion Among Negroes” document describes Harlem’s Own Cooperative as a milk route that was six years old in 1941. In box 2, folder 3 of the Ella Baker Papers at the Schomburg Center, there is a note card with information about a “very important meeting” in the clubroom of the Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments, organized by the Dunbar Housewives’ League and the Citizens’ League for Fair Play.

Interested parties were urged to attend to “decide on the incorporating of a profi t-sharing Consumers’ Co-operative for the distribu- tion of milk.” Th e cooperative started with a capital investment of $300 and grew into a $15,000 business, heavily supported by the Dunbar Housewives’ League. Baker describes Harlem’s Own as being “largely responsible for keeping the consumer movement alive in Harlem.” Th e same folder in Ella Baker’s papers also includes the fi rst page of a letter to the board of directors of Harlem’s Own Cooperative about the co-op’s defi cits.

Baker reiterated the importance of good business practices and suggested that the method of milk delivery and bill collection be made much more effi cient. Baker was chair of the co- op’s education and publicity committee for a time, and remained connected with Harlem’s Own until 1941, when her job with the NAACP required her to travel a great deal (Grant 1998).

She notes that Harlem’s Own merged with Harlem Consumers’ Cooperative Council in 1941 (Baker 1941). a note on the paul laurence dunbar apartments Th e Paul Laurence Dunbar Apartments in Harlem, a cooperative in its early years (from 1928 to 1936), was “Manhattan’s earliest large garden apartment complex” and “the fi rst large [housing] cooperative built for blacks” (Land- marks Preservation Commission 1970, 1). Th is apartment complex is also well 134 deliberative cooperative economic development known because it has housed many famous African Americans, including W.

E. B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson (tap dancer and actor), Countee Cullen (poet), Matthew Henson (explorer), and Paul Robeson (activist and singer/actor) (Dodson, Moore, and Yancy 2000, 1928). Floyd-Th omas describes the Dunbar Apartments as a response to the “black bourgeoisie’s cry for public housing”—a cooperative for middle-class Black Harlemites (2008, 120). Extending from 149th to 150th Streets between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, the Dunbar Apartment complex was designated a land- mark site in 1970.

Financed by John D.

About the pagination of this eBook Due to the unique page numbering scheme of this book, the electronic pagination of the eBook does not match the pagination of the printed version. To navigate the text, please use the electronic Table of Contents that appears alongside the eBook or the Search function. For citation purposes, use the page numbers that appear in the text. COLLECTIVE COURAGE the pennsylvania state university press university park, pennsylvania COLLECTIVE COURAGE A HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN COOPERATIVE ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND PRACTICE jessica gordon nembhard Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gordon Nembhard, Jessica, 1956– , author.

Collective courage : a history of African American cooperative economic thought and practice / Jessica Gordon Nembhard. p. cm Summary: “Chronicles the achievements and challenges of African American collective economic action and social entrepreneurship in the struggle for civil rights and economic equality”—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-271-06216-7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Economic conditions. 2. Cooperative societies—United States—History. 3. Cooperation—United States—History. I. Title. E185.8.G674 2014 330.90089’96073—dc23 2013042173 Copyright © 2014 Th e Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by Th e Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802-1003 Th e Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.

It is the policy of Th e Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z39.48–1992. Th is book is printed on paper that contains 30% post-consumer waste. To Curtis Haynes Jr. for vision, pioneering work, collegiality, and friendship. He asked some of the original questions and planted the seed.

And to my children, Stephen Milete A. Nembhard and Susan Rosa A. Gordon Nembhard, for being genuinely interested, embracing the vision, and yet again allowing me to be so distracted. Susan Rosa, also, for designing several versions of a cover for this book.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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