Moving and Shaking Cooperative Economic Spaces: The Role of African American Women in the Cooperative Movement

Submitted by andrewr on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:54pm
in
Date: 
Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 3:00pm - 5:00pm
Location : 
DC

Location: Sisterspace and Books, 3717 Georgia Avenue N.W., Washington, DC 20010
(Georgia Avenue Petworth Metro)

www.sisterspacedc.com
info@sisterspacedc.com
202-829-0306

Cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation increase earning power and economic independence for women, particularly women of color in worker cooperatives.  Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard will discuss the role of Black women in the cooperative movement in the US, their leadership and the cooperatives they have owned. The discussion will focus on, Ella Jo Baker and the Young Negroes' Cooperative League, Fannie Lou Hamer and Freedom Farm Cooperative, as well as the cooperative program of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Examples of African American women’s leadership and independence in cooperatives is demonstrated particularly in modern low-income craft and worker-owned cooperatives such as Freedom Quilting Bee in Alberta, AL, Cooperative Home Care Associates in the South Bronx, NY, and the cooperatives created through Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security in Redwood City, CA where women establish and control their own cooperatives. Issues for women of color in general and immigrant women in particular in cooperatives will also be discussed.

Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Ph.D., Washington, DC, jgordonnembhard@gmail.com, Associate Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development Department of African American Studies John Jay College, City University of NY, 445 West 59th St.  Room 3217N, New York, NY  10019. 646-577-4658 direct; Dept. Fax: 212-237-8099; www.jjay.cuny.edu.  Affiliate Scholar, Center on Race and Wealth, Howard University Department of Economics and Affiliate Scholar, Centre for the Study of Cooperatives, Univ. of Saskatchewan.