The Co-op That Changed The South | PopularResistance.Org

The Co-op That Changed The South | PopularResistance.Org:

The Co-op That Changed The South

EDUCATE! CIVIL RIGHTS, CO-OPS, RACISM, VIDEO 
By David J. Thompson, www.ncba.coop
February 9th, 2014 (284 VIEWS)

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Above: Alice Wine at the Progressive Club

Note: The history of cooperatives and social change is intertwined throughout the life of the nation.  In this article, Cooperatives and Community Work Are Part of American DNA, Margaret Flowers and I review that history.  It is a part of our economy that is not talked about much in US history but it has had a consistent and important presence from before the United States became a nation to the present day. KZ

It was a small cooperative store on a little known island off the coast of South Carolina. During the harshest days of the civil rights struggle, embattled black leaders came through its doors seeking inspiration. Among the legendary leaders who visited the co-op were: Ralph Abernathy, Dorothy Cotton, Conrad Brown, Fannie Lou Hamer, Martin Luther King Jr, John Lewis, Bernice Reagon, Cleveland Sellers, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), Andrew Young, Hosea Williams and many others.

What began in that co-op was a Citizenship School to teach blacks on Johns Island, South Carolina how to qualify to vote. Later, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) spread that program throughout the South. That one class in the co-op became thousands of classes in churches, schools and homes. In 1962, the SCLC brought in other groups who then formed the Voter Education Project (VEP). Between 1962 and 1966 VEP trained 10,000 teachers for Citizenship Schools and 700,000 black voters registered throughout the South.  By 1970, another million black voters had registered.

The Progressive Club main entrance from South Carolina Dept of Archives and History.

Aldon Morris in his book, “Origins of the Civil Rights Movement,” wrote: “…the Citizenship Schools were one of the most effective tools of the movement.” That class at the co-op led to millions of blacks voting