Owning It Together: Detroit’s Co-op Cash Mob, Raleigh’s Fertile Ground, Tulsa’s Greenwood Trust, and Black Men Answering the Call

Unity is easy to say and harder to build. This week’s news shows what it looks like when it gets built: Black neighbors buying shares in their own grocery stores, a Tulsa trust raising capital to restore what was burned in 1921, and Black men organizing to protect and mentor the young. None of it is a slogan. All of it asks something of each of us.

Detroit: “This is not a charity case. It’s an investment.”

The Detroit People’s Food Co-Op, a Black-led, community-owned grocery store that opened two years ago, told shoppers that changing habits, power outages and other pressures have made it harder to keep shelves stocked. Its president, Lenay Gilbert-Williams, told WXYZ the store has been pulling from reserves to cover the gap, while stressing that it is not in danger of closing, according to the Michigan Chronicle.

Detroit answered. According to the Chronicle, the store held its first Community Shopping Day, where podcaster Deante Kyle of the Grits and Eggs Podcast bought $2,500 in gift cards so shoppers in line could take home free groceries. On Saturday, October 10, the nonprofit BLK GRL Conglomerate is hosting a “Black Girl Cash Mob,” asking 100 Black women to spend $20 each and become member-owners. In an Instagram post quoted by the Chronicle, the group wrote: “One grocery store we can actually own. This is not a charity case. It’s an investment and we’re the investors.”

The co-op’s own drive is called the Mframadan Campaign, named for the Akan Adinkra symbol from Ghana meaning “a house built to withstand windy and treacherous conditions,” per the Chronicle. It runs from September 8 to November 30 and asks for 500 new member-owners, an extra $10 per shopping trip from those who can, and invitations to speak at churches, block clubs, fraternities, sororities and community groups.

Raleigh: Fertile Ground breaks ground

Southeast Raleigh has been federally classified as a food desert since the city’s two Kroger stores closed in 2013, WUNC reported, in a story carried by The Carolinian. After more than a decade of planning, the Fertile Ground Food Cooperative will hold a groundbreaking on October 24 for a Black-led, community-owned grocery store, which will sit beside the JD Lewis Multipurpose Center on Garner Road, according to WUNC.

Per WUNC, the co-op has more than 1,000 member-owners who vote on major decisions, and has raised more than $5 million toward an $11 million goal. Its communications manager, Ben Jones, told the station the slower timeline is deliberate, to avoid debt and bring profitability to members sooner. The store plans to open in 2027 and to stock food from Black farmers and regional growers.

Jones put the history plainly, according to WUNC: African American communities have long joined together “to overcome and help each other with what they’re not receiving.” Before the groundbreaking, a Harvest Gala on October 17 will feature Malik Yakini, a board member of the Detroit People’s Food Co-Op, the station reported. Two cities, one movement, learning from each other.

Six places, one movement of Black ownership and solidarity

Tulsa: rebuilding the Greenwood blueprint

According to ImpactAlpha, before the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre the Greenwood District spanned 35 square blocks, with about 10,000 residents and more than 100 Black-owned businesses, from barbershops to a hospital and its own school system. Today, ImpactAlpha reports, the Greenwood Trust, a private charitable trust launched by Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols, the city’s first Black mayor, is raising $105 million to invest in “the things that made Greenwood great,” in the words of its executive director, Alaina Beverly.

Per ImpactAlpha, the target is split across three funds: $60 million for cultural preservation, $21 million for education and entrepreneurship, and $24 million for housing, including down-payment help and land for massacre survivors and their descendants. “We built an entire ecosystem and know how to do it in our DNA,” Beverly told the outlet. According to ImpactAlpha, the trust declined to say how much it has raised so far, and it has not yet deployed capital, so this is a story to keep watching, not one to celebrate as finished.

Pittsburgh: a Day of Black Male Solidarity

In Homewood, Rashad Byrdsong, founder of the Community Empowerment Association, is hosting his second Day of Black Male Solidarity on Saturday, October 17, from 9 a.m. to about 4 p.m. at 7120 Kelly Street, the New Pittsburgh Courier reports. The first, in 2007, drew some 700 Black men and teens on a march from Freedom Corner to Downtown.

This time there is no march, but according to the Courier there will be forums on economic autonomy and wealth-building, intergenerational mentorship, and holistic well-being and public safety. It is free and open to Black men and young men ages 13 and up. The challenge, Byrdsong told the Courier, is that “most of us (Black men) are working in our own silos.” He added: “It’s a matter of connecting those silos together.”

Macon: “This is a community problem”

After a shooting at Carolyn Crayton Park injured 12 people, 100 Black Men of Macon-Middle Georgia held a press conference on October 7 calling for a community-wide response, WGXA reports. The group urged gun owners to lock their cars or bring firearms inside, asked parents to know where their children are at night, and reminded adults that “children want to be heard.”

Per WGXA, the chapter says it recently adopted 50 boys in ninth through eleventh grade at Southwest High School and mentors students from elementary school through Fort Valley State University. It said it will not write a plan alone. “We’re not claiming to have all the solutions,” a representative said, according to WGXA. “However, we know that when we put great minds in the room together, that we can come up with a strategy.”

On the calendar: One Philly HBCU Week

From October 26 to 31, Philadelphia hosts One Philly HBCU Week, a six-day celebration of HBCUs presented with the Philadelphia Eagles, with music, faith, careers, Greek life and two HBCU football games at Lincoln Financial Field, the City of Philadelphia announced. In the city’s release, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker called it a chance to “show the country how we celebrate HBCU excellence.”

What we can carry forward

Own, don’t only spend. A member share in a co-op is a vote and a stake, not just a purchase.
Show up on an ordinary Saturday. Detroit’s cash mob and Pittsburgh’s solidarity day only work if people come.
Build slowly and without debt. Fertile Ground chose patience so members can profit sooner.
Restore what was taken. Greenwood is proof that Black prosperity was real, and that rebuilding it takes capital and care.
Protect the young together. Macon’s message holds everywhere: no single group can do it alone.

Unity is not a feeling we wait for. It is a store we own, a seat we fill, and a child we listen to.

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