CMA Co-ops Go National
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
On the heels of the Montgomery success, the NNBL’s Albon Holsey traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, in March 1929 to attend the National Conference of Executives of the Grocery Industry. Holsey had been the only African-American who attended the conference. He met Carl Dipman, editor of the Progressive Grocer at the meeting. Started in 1922, the Progressive Grocer had been based in New York and served as a leading journal for the grocery store industry. At the Louisville conference, Dipman gave a talk on modernizing grocery stores for the 20th century. Holsey left the conference with a vision for an NNBL CMA cooperative, he later engaged Dipman as a consultant. With the inspiration of the successful CMA initiative in Montgomery and the conference in Louisville, Kentucky, Holsey announced on March 9, 1929, the organizing of a national CMA cooperative chain and called for black entrepreneurs and patrons to support it. Holsey said, the organization of African-American merchants into a cooperative chain store association served as its salvation. CMA member stores would represent an association for buying and selling products cooperatively and remodeling stores under the consultation of Dipman. The survival of neighborhood black grocery stores depended on organization, cooperation, offering quality products, and excellent customer service.
Tell others about this blog and share a link
