Growing the Cooperative Economy

“They actually had a system where someone who wanted to own a business could get help in doing that.” -Kristi Williams, Greater Tulsa Area African American Affairs Commission

By now, many know the history that the largest racial massacre in U.S. history occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. White residents killed hundreds of Black Tulsans and burned buildings in the Greenwood District. While that tragedy should never be forgotten, I want to talk about what came before that.

Greenwood was known as Black Wall Street. At its peak, over three-hundred thriving businesses supported more than 10,000 Black residents. The business district began in 1906 when Black landowner O.W. Gurley purchased 40 acres of land in Tulsa. The Jim Crow laws at the time prevented Black Tulsa residents from patronizing white-owned stores. There was also a railroad that divided the community physically, creating Greenwood as its own distinct entity.

Food Co-op General Manager Bobby Sullivan wrote a book called Revolutionary Threads. In it, he wrote about the Greenwood District through the lens of cooperative economics. "Oklahoma's racial segregation laws prevented black people from shopping anywhere other than Black Wall Street, so the money from the newly established black townships was funneled back into their own economy."

The wealth accumulation that created Black Wall Street was derived in large-part from the fact that it was a closed-loop system. Black-owned banks lent to Black-owned-businesses. Those businesses hired Black workers, used Black-owned repair companies and paid rent to a Black landlord. It's estimated that each dollar in Greenwood circulated 30 times over.

I've been thinking about that a lot recently when it comes to cooperative economics. The last two years have shown that a reliance on the federal government, grant funding, non-profits or even typical corporate America to create economic opportunity is tenuous at best. Cooperatives have thriving businesses in a variety of sectors, but this moment also shows a great opportunity, and perhaps even the need, to consider a closed-loop system of cooperative economics. At least, to the greatest extent possible.

I'm not the first, or the last to come to this conclusion. Alex Stone, the Executive Director of CooperationWorks! wrote last year in Nonprofit Quarterly about leveraging our collective economic strength. Stone argued for the creation of a Co-op Mutualist Fund. Even a small fraction of annual profits from successful cooperatives could create a fund in the tens of millions that can be leveraged to support the creation of new co-ops, or help existing ones thrive.

Author Michael Shuman of the Main Street Journal wrote just this week about a public banking option being considered in Berkeley. Washington DC's Community Wealth Builders coalition of cross-sector cooperatives also is advocating for a public bank. Solving for access to capital with non-extractive would clearly change the game for cooperative development.

The 2025 Food Co-op Impact Report from National Co+op Grocers says their 167 member co-ops brought in $2.8 billion in annual sales. Those stores borrow from lenders, pay rent, buy goods, pay for utilities and more with their sales revenue. Cooperatively-owned businesses and operators exist in each of those categories. What percentage of those dollars are recirculating the in the cooperative economy? Or more importantly, what percentage could be?

Food co-ops and other cooperative organizations used to own more of the supply chain. In the wave one co-ops of the 40s and 50s, Co-op branded products could be found on the shelves. Cooperative food warehouses were a key cog in the wave two food co-ops during the 60s and 70s. Imagine food co-ops using their money to support cooperatively-owned businesses from the farm all the way to the register.

This is not to say that isn't happening at many stores. Food co-ops support cooperative brands like Frontier spices, Organic Valley and Equal Exchange. Co-ops in my area save money on group-negotiated utility contracts and more from a cooperative called the Community Purchasing Alliance. But the scale could be increased significantly.

The time to systematically begin building more of a close-looped system into our cooperative economy is now. The more we can keep dollars circulating within other cooperatively-owned businesses, the more we can all benefit from the resulting wealth accumulation. We don't need to start with perfection, but we do need to start somewhere. Look locally for cooperative organizations you can buy services from.

Just squeeze principles 3 and 6 together in your head: Cooperation Through Economic Participation Among Cooperatives.