Jessica Gordon Nembhard: Co-operative Economics in African American History

A U.S. scholar has published a ground-breaking study of the role of co-operatives in her country's African American civil rights movement.

Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Associate Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development at John Jay College, City University of New York, is the author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, published by Penn State University Press in May 2014.

According to Dr. Nembhard, co-operative enterprises played an important role in African American history and that many of the civil rights movement's most prominent figures and organizations were directly involved in the development of co-ops. Her book is considered the first full-length, nationwide study of African American co-operatives since W.E.B. DuBois wrote Economic Cooperation Among Negro Americans in 1907.

Click here to watch a video interview with Dr. Nembhard discussing her book.

Click here to order a copy of the book from Penn State University Press.