CMA Expands to North Carolina
Courtesy of The New York Public Library
After Montgomery, the CMA movement spread to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. When the CMA expanded into Winston, Salem the NNBL scheduled educational forums for African-Americans entrepreneurs about the virtues of CMA cooperatives. Topics discussed included modern store management principles, displaying products, advertising, cooperative buying and advertising, record keeping etc. CMA workshops emphasized increased profits for African-American entrepreneurs throughout the South using better business methods, organization, and a cooperative business model for purchasing and advertising. It’s unclear how long it took for The CMA to renovate its first store in Winston, Salem. We do know that the store opened on a Saturday morning, generally a slow day, and African-American consumers emptied it shelves by the close of business on Saturday night. As a result 22 African-American merchants operating grocery stores in Winston-Salem joined the CMA.
