This pioneering book explores the meaning of the term “Black social economy,” a self-help sector that remains autonomous from the state and business sectors. With the Western Hemisphere’s ignoble history of enslavement and violence towards African peoples, and the strong anti-black racism...

In the decades after the Civil War and before the Great Migration, a set of remarkable Black business leaders and inventors emerged, including Elijah McCoy, noted inventor and innovator in engine lubrication; John Sullivan Deas, the first person canning salmon near Vancouver; Rev. Charles...