Dr. Fred Opie

More from the research The Roots Family Organization (RFO) of Washington, DC on skin care. The East republished their findings in the pages of Black News in the late 1970s. The RFO published some DYI herbal skin care instructions. (I posted Dr. Alvenia Fulton’s skin care suggestions, see the link be

Here is another story straight from the archives of the 1970s to 1980s Brooklyn based food rebel group, the East. The change from stone mills to roller mills at the beginning of the 20th century reduced the amount of fiber in the US food system by 90%. Fiber plays an important role in keeping waste

Today I am starting a series based articles published in Black News, the paper of the East, An Afrocentric movement in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn during the 1970s and 1980s.

Through a strategy of uniting their orders CMA merchants gained the ability to match the prices of European American chain grocery stores. The success of CMA organizing led European American owned chain stores to take steps to prevent European landlords from leasing stores space to CMA merchants. Al

By 1930, The CMA had 12 stores in Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York City. Illinois', Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia

At a time in which school segregation existed, he organized conferences that served as business school workshops. National Negro Business League (NNBL) conference served as places where older black business experts taught younger generations so they could learn and then build on what Washington’s ge

In 1912 a Reverend Dr. J.T. Brown came to Miami to pastor a Baptist Church in the city. Brown had a burning desire for better opportunities and treatment for members of his congregation. He called for boycotting businesses until their owners agreed to radical changes.

African-Americans in Fort Smith, Arkansas took the lessons of the NNBL and did the work necessary to advance African American economic independence. The work paid off: Fort Smith’s 8000 black residents owned $200,000 worth of real estate. African Americans owned and operated four grocery stores and

National Negro Business League annual conventions had been spaces with members could learn from Washington and his generation, build on their knowledge, and then pass it on to others in their local chapters and associations.

Booker T. Washington founded the National Negro Business League (NNBL) in 1900 to promote support entrepreneurship among African-Americans. As part of its 1912 annual meeting held in Chicago, the NNBL offered a number of sessions to help its members in the food industry.

“Mr. Atwell, I was in the dining room this morning between five and 6 o’clock and I was surprised to see the large quantity of food which was being dumped into the [cart for feeding to the pigs]. Biscuits, cornbread and light bread that had not been touched either by students or teachers was dumped

The local National Negro Business League “should be the Chamber of Commerce for the Negro. Every community should have its local league, and wherever possible and practical there should be a State League, all working in harmony with the National Negro Business League.

The Farmer’s Improvement Society of Texas (FIST) held annual agricultural fairs where it held lectures on better farming and business techniques and strategies for increasing one’s revenue streams and reducing operating expenses. FIST agricultural fairs also held competitions for its members for pro