The International Comparative Labor Studies (ICLS) program at Morehouse College held the Vision and Victory: Expanding Black Employee Ownership conference November 12-14 an inaugural ICLS event, which hoped to inspire all – workers seeking ownership, small businesses, startups, and new graduates seeking to collaborate and combine, or retiring owners seeking intergenerational wealth transfer and legacy.
The culminating event included a moderated dinner conversation with speakers coming together to discuss dynamic ways to expand Black Employee Ownership. They included: Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development, Department of Africana Studies, John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Esteban Kelly, Executive Director, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives; Dr. Stacey Sutton, Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Policy, the University of Illinois, Chicago. Their insights helped frame the future of Black Employee Ownership and inspire dialogue on how collective ownership models could redefine economic empowerment.
“This conference brought a very strong network of people together,” said Dr. Cynthia Hewitt, Director of the International Comparative Labor Studies Program (ICLS) at Morehouse College and Conference Co-Chair said, “Employee ownership is unique within the cooperative space because it serves the purpose of allowing businesses to transfer intergenerationally. It serves the purpose of letting a business that’s not being inherited, transfer to new owners. We had many good examples represented here (at the conference). We’ve had people come from across the country. She continued, “This concept is easy to grasp, but you have to talk to people involved with it (employee ownership), cooperatives and others.”
Marc D. Beyard, Conference Co-Chair and Senior Advisor of ICLS at Morehouse College, said, “I really wanted to bring alumni back to share their experiences and to show how valid and important this kind of work is. We also wanted to build a bridge between the arts and sciences where ICLS is located and the Business School. Having Dean Sher R. Gibbs (Morehouse Dean of Business and Economics) moderate the panel earlier showed that we could develop a course that could be useful for both students who are in the business school, as well as someone who might be studying Shakespeare or history, or art history. It’s our opportunity, our introduction to so many people who have been working in this space for decades, to say we are joining collectively. We really want to be with our compatriots with those who are in this space, so we invited them to Morehouse to share, break bread with us and fellowship, so we can do our work collectively going forward.”
Expert Panel Discussion
Esteban Kelly, thinks the employee ownership conversation is significant to HBCUs because of the combination of focusing on labor and the curiosity of cooperatives and ownership.
“So much of this is about a reclamation of history that runs right through not just the South, but right through Atlanta of what Black movements have struggled for and even achieved and how that has been sabotaged, dismantled, silenced, and hidden intentionally at times as a survival tactic,” Kelly said.
He went on to discuss the inclusion of Black workers as work models are changing, how the last time there was a significant advancement of labor policy at the federal level, Black workers were left out explicitly. He gave examples of work such as domestic work, farmwork, and explained how, in his opinion, they were left out of the workforce model. Now, with the advancement or wave of labor, ownership is also not a part of where the workforce is going with automation and AI.
“Not only were those types of jobs, that’s where our economy is going with service sector jobs. Ownership matters because in addition to the protections, wages, and all the different protections, wages, wage theft, minimum wage, workplace safety, that were included 90 years ago in the last significant labor update to how the political economy of the United States is functioning, ownership was not a part of that,” Kelly said.
Dr. Stacy Sutton says the thought of employee ownership is tied to economic democracy and community control. She quoted WEB Dubois, a Black intellectual and his literary work, “The Souls of Black Folks”, written while he was a professor at Atlanta University, now Clark Atlanta University, who criticized the pursuit of “individual riches” as a primary goal for Black Americans, and advocated for cooperative economic effort. She quoted, “If we go the way of individual wealth, it will not bode well. It is a fallacy to think that individual riches will be sufficient.”
“We have a legacy of doing this work, but we’ve bought into a fallacy that the individual can succeed and there would be trickle-down. The other reason I came to Atlanta is because it’s a city of organizing. All of this work is about organizing. You have to organize communities, you have to organize workers, and we have to organize the enterprises. Coming here and engaging both with Morehouse, the fact that we’re sitting here talking about collective ownership is profound,” Sutton said.
She went on to discuss what she sees as three pillars of this work: organizing, education and trust. “We have to trust that there are indeed alternatives to capitalism…We have to trust there are other ways to move forward.”
Dr. Jessica Gordon – Nembhard, often referred to as the Godmother of Employee Ownership for her work and advocacy of the work model, started her part in the panel discussion by saying the panel was a dream because 15-20 years ago she hoped would not be the only one on a stage discussing this subject. She also referenced W.E.B. Dubois, noting that he shared these thoughts being discussed in 1907, and in 2025 it is still being discussed.
“He said, ‘We’re at a crossroads. We could choose the individualistic way and keep going the same way and keep going the same way we were going in our communities, our base, we wouldn’t get much further.’ We could choose the cooperation path. Unfortunately, we didn’t really choose the cooperation path. I’m challenging us today, we need to choose the path of cooperation and worker ownership and worker cooperatives before it’s too late,” Nembhard said.
“We have to take the leadership in this as Black people. As Dubois said, ‘We’re the ones that are the most marginalized, the beasts of society, the beggars…’ We need to be the ones to take the lead to show people, to show the world what economic democracy means. If Black folks are supposed to be the lead, then why not start at Morehouse, at HBCUs,” Nembhard said.
Nembhard mentioned an article written in 1940 about cooperative and consumer education at HBCUs that had at least half a course about the topic, had communities in which they existed. She followed up on this currently with HBCUs and couldn’t find anything on courses or cooperatives existing in the surrounding communities.
“We need to be here. Why not Morehouse take the lead? Why not have Atlanta take the lead of Black folks, Black schools, teaching ourselves how to do this, so we can take the lead, take that proper fork in the road and save humanity,” she concluded.
Historic & Present-Day Examples
Showing her historic knowledge of employee ownership, Dr. Nembhard gave multiple examples of employee ownership models throughout history.
She mentioned the Colored Farmers Alliance, formed in the 1870’s, giving small farmers better purchasing power to compete with White farmers and providing the resources to establish credit and have labor pools.
Another example was the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company, formed by free Black men, mentored by Fredrick Douglass, who formed the nation’s first Black- owned shipyard in 1866. After the Civil War, White and Irish workers refused to work alongside Black workers, which resulted in Black workers being dismissed. According to Explore Baltimore Heritage, the Black workers formed a union and formed a cooperative company. Pooling their resources, they purchased a shipyard and railway, which they named the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company. Within months, the cooperative employed 300 black caulkers and received several government contracts.
Nembhard mentioned present-day ones created in the 1980’s such as the Co-Op Home Care Associates, serving as a training ground for health care professionals, operating as a job agency.
Sutton briefed the audience on ChiFresh Kitchen, started in 2020, by five Black women who were formerly incarcerated.
“They came back home to Chicago, and they started organizing. They met weekly for over a year with experts to learn about cooperatives, the model, and the thought that they could own this. They didn’t have to work for anybody else. They opened in 2020, and since then, they have purchased their own building. They’re extremely profitable, so they have a dividend that they share. They were justice-impacted and realized that housing too, was a barrier for individuals like them, and they started a housing cooperative. Now they own two buildings,” she said. “These are women who have been justice-impacted, and they would be classified as low income. Now, on average, I think they earn $31 an hour.”
According to the company, they are structured as a worker cooperative, where every worker has the opportunity to share in the governance and profits of the business.
What Does Employee Ownership Look Like?
An example of a local business that exercises the employee ownership concept is Sevananda Natural Foods Market. Yes, the place where you can shop for freshly prepared foods, as well as herbs and natural medicine in Little Five Points in East Atlanta.
Natural Awakenings Atlanta says it best, “Sevananda has always been more than just a grocery store; it is a community hub. It is a wellness center and a place where people can come together to learn, share and grow.”
It is a consumer-owned cooperative, owned by its members (shoppers) and employees, not outside corporations, fostering community control and shared benefits like discounts and profit-sharing. Members have a say in store policies, products, and governance, with benefits including monthly discounts, education perks, and a share in the co-op’s success, aligning with cooperative principles of democratic control and community focus.
For more information about Employee Ownership, visit:https://morehouse.edu/icls
According to Morehouse College, ICLS seeks to embed the labor studies discipline at and provide an education that examines the role of black workers in the civil rights movement and American labor history to offer a 21st-century vision for sustainable meaningful work lives for African Americans and all workers. Through this lens, they aim to close the gap conceptually, organizationally, and pedagogically between mental and manual labor for the cultivation and proper remuneration of all work. In the words of Morehouse Alumnus Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, “All labor has dignity.”
The International Comparative Labor Studies International Comparative Labor Studies (ICLS) was established in 2017 to create pathways for Morehouse graduates to enter social justice careers in leadership, research, and community organizing. Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have played an inextricable role in fostering scholars who spearheaded academic disciplines that support the advancement of human and civil rights in the South.
