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Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee spotlight – Nannie Helen Burroughs

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Nannie Helen Burroughs, Unsung Hero


  • Movement Builder Ms. Burroughs worked tirelessly to harness the co-op model for the empowerment of Black women in her community. She launched projects and institutions to support academic and economic empowerment. And she saw these through to fruition and significant growth. Cooperative Industries in DC eventually included a community medical clinic, broom factory, sewing unit, canning department, grocery store, furniture manufacturing unit, and a cooperative farm and produce market. Cooperative Industries ultimately served more than 6,000 residents of Northeast Washington, DC.
  • Feminist Educator In 1907, Ms. Burroughs realized her dream of starting a school for girls in DC. The National Training School was the first vocational school for Black girls in the United States. Ms. Burroughs made space at her school available for members to work when she started her first co-op 25 years later. She was an avid and strong advocate on behalf of her community and led the charge in harnessing of the cooperative model to foster economic empowerment and created a safety net for Black women and children.
  • Cooperative Stateswoman Ms. Burroughs was a fierce fighter for the empowerment of Black women, an educator and a civil rights leader. She combined civil and women’s rights with education and cooperative business development. She was no less than an accomplished cooperative stateswoman.

Nannie Helen Burroughs was among five outstanding cooperative leaders who received the cooperative community’s most prestigious honor on October 3, 2024, when they were inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame at the Hamilton Hotel in Washington, DC.


 

Nannie Helen Burroughs

Co-Founder, Cooperative Industries of Washington, DC

Nannie Helen Burroughs believed that cooperatives offered Black communities a viable alternative to the hardships of the Great Depression, and provided Black women, especially, safer and better paying jobs than domestic service. She took inspiration from the Rochdale Co-operative Society of the District of Columbia. Already well-known as founder and acclaimed leader of the National Baptist Women’s Convention (1900) and founder of the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington DC (1909), Ms. Burroughs also co-founded the Northeast Self Help Cooperative in 1936, a worker cooperative for women in Washington, DC.

As president of Northeast Self Help, Ms. Burroughs won a grant from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to expand the cooperative by purchasing agricultural land in Maryland. Now with a co-op farm in addition to the integrated set of industrial cooperatives in DC, the co-op also added a consumer store, and became a multi-stakeholder cooperative called Cooperative Industries. Cooperative Industries eventually included a community medical clinic, broom factory, sewing unit, canning department, grocery store, furniture manufacturing unit, and a cooperative farm and produce market. Cooperative Industries operated for four years at the tail end of the Great Depression.

Committed to teaching others about cooperatives, Ms. Burroughs attracted new members through education on Cooperative Values and Principles. She utilized the National Training School as the organizational base for her educational and political endeavors, as well as having the school share space with Cooperative Industries. This enabled the school’s students to experience firsthand the cooperative’s daily operations, as well as provided co-op training for co-op members. The National Training School was later renamed the National Trade and Professional School where Ms. Burroughs created a course entitled Cooperatives: The New Program for Economic Security. In addition, Ms. Burroughs was a member of the Cooperative League of the U.S.A., or CLUSA (now NCBA CLUSA) and often gave speeches promoting co-ops on behalf of the chapter.

Thanks to Ms. Burroughs’ efforts in harnessing the cooperative business model and the multi-stakeholder structure, Cooperative Industries helped meet the needs of working mothers in her community. Transformed by her own experience of discrimination, disappointment, and financial hardship, she fostered economic empowerment and created a safety net for Black women and children—and ultimately served more than 6,000 residents of Northeast Washington, DC.


The Cooperative Hall of Fame is administered by the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF), the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA). Nominations are received annually from the cooperative community, with the final selection made by the NCBA CLUSA Board of Directors on the recommendations of a selection committee of national cooperative leaders. The Cooperative Hall of Fame Gallery is on display in NCBA CLUSA’s offices in Washington, DC and can also be visited on the web at www.heroes.coop.

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