“Will We Cut Off Our Bread by Doing Something More?”

Abstract As the civil rights movement arrived in the rural South, activists believed that cooperative farming could address social, economic, and political inequalities. Cooperative leaders considered the Southwest Alabama Farmers Cooperative Association to be one of the most significant of these groups and hoped the organization could empower Black farmers and break down white structural control in the Alabama Black Belt. This article contends that this widely accepted interpretation of the cooperative does not reflect the understandings of rank-and-file members, most of whom were interested in attaining economic security. Members worried that participating in civil rights efforts could jeopardize their financial stability and their ability to remain in the region. Many thus advocated for economic solutions over social and political change.