Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff Part One: The Colored Farmers Alliance and Early Black Cooperativism in the US
Feb 23, 2026
Courtney Kosek, writer and podcaster who researches Black cooperative history, explores the Colored Farmers Alliance and Black cooperative farming. She traces sharecropping, debt peonage, and land reform context. Conversations cover Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm model, the mechanics of crop liens, and how mutual aid and secret-society structures supported Black farmers.
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Colored Farmers Alliance Was A Multifaceted Power
- The Colored Farmers National Alliance combined cooperative economics, a buyers' co-op, labor union functions, and a secret society to protect Black farmers.
- It claimed up to 1.2 million members and terrified white Southern elites before violent suppression ended it.
Freedom Farm Cooperative Focused On Food Sovereignty
- Fannie Lou Hamer's Freedom Farm Cooperative emphasized food sovereignty over cash crops and practical supports like a pig bank.
- They bought 40 pigs to breed and distribute so community members could reliably access pork and staple food.
40 Acres Promise Was Reversed By Presidential Action
- The 40 Acres and a Mule promise after Sherman's March briefly created a pathway to land ownership for freed people via Special Field Orders No. 15.
- Andrew Johnson reversed it, returning confiscated land to plantation owners and leaving freed people landless.