“Black Is Beautiful But So Is Green”:

Capitalism, Black Power, and Politics in Floyd McKissick’s Soul City
  • Zachary Gillan
Chapter
Part of the The Critical Black Studies Series book series (CBL)

Abstract

In the tumultuous summer of 1968, Floyd McKissick, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), announced his retirement from that organization in order to devote his time to the development of the “Black Economy,” the growth of which he viewed as “the spearhead of racial equality.”1 Less than a year later, in early 1969, McKissick unveiled his plans for the flagship of his efforts: a new planned community in Warren County, North Carolina. McKissick intended this project, which he named Soul City, to provide a shining example of his ideal of black economic power. In McKissick’s vision, this endeavor would help “end the dependency of Black people on the white economy which has so long exploited them” by extending “the Civil Rights struggle beyond job training and equal employment to ownership … of the businesses which exist in and of the Black community.” African Americans who followed McKissicks lead, in other words, would no longer “be content to eat leftovers in the kitchen,” seeking instead “to sit at our own table and carve the financial turkey with all its trimmings.”2 Soul City, as a community expressly planned, built, and led according to black capitalist ideals, would prove the viability of McKissick’s thought.

Keywords

Black People Republican Party Black Economy Black Business Black Leadership 
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Notes

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Copyright information

© Manning Marable and Elizabeth Kai Hinton 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  • Zachary Gillan

There are no affiliations available

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