Mississippi is the poorest state in the US, with the highest
percentage of Black people and a history of vicious racial terror.
Black resistance at a time of global health, economic, and climate
crisis is the backdrop and context for the drama captured in this new
and revised collection of essays. Cooperation Jackson, founded in
2014 in Mississippi’s capital to develop an economically uplifting
democratic “solidarity economy,” is anchored by a network of
worker-owned, self-managed cooperative enterprises. The organization
developed in the context of the historic election of radical Mayor
Chokwe Lumumba, lifetime human rights attorney. Subsequent to
Lumumba’s passing less than one year after assuming office, the
network developed projects both inside and outside of the formal
political arena. In 2020, Cooperation Jackson became the center for
national and international coalition efforts, bringing together
progressive peoples from diverse trade union, youth, church, and
cultural movements. This long-anticipated anthology details the
foundations behind those successful campaigns. It unveils new and
ongoing strategies and methods being pursued by the movement for
grassroots-centered Black community control and self-determination,
inspiring partnership and emulation across the globe.