The business of Black power was an unprecedented collaboration among grassroots organizations, business owners, corporate executives, and government officials in the 1960s and early 1970s. Mainstream journalists eagerly—if not always accurately—chronicled its development. Government officials, most notably Richard Nixon, sought to discipline it. White-owned corporations sought to harness it in the service of a marketable Black aesthetic. Many commentators reduced the business of Black power to a narrowly defined Black capitalism. But the business of Black power was not just the sum of its parts. It was a conversation—about what kind of economic system would realize the goals of the Black liberation movement to which diverse Black people were committed. And no one was more invested in defining the possibilities of the business of Black power than the activists and intellectuals on its frontlines who approached the task of economic development with urgency and determination. For this reason, the contemporary literature furnishes an indispensable starting point when situated in the longer history of Black business.

We offer a brief account of Black economic progress, thought, and debate in the twentieth century to contextualize this collection of essays and to move toward a history of the business of Black power. Contemporary writings must also be reexamined in light of new research of the sort represented in this collection. Its mixture of manifesto, theoretical speculation, and preliminary diagnosis—published primarily in the late 1960s and early 1970s—could not adequately capture a movement in the making. It now requires analysis by new scholars, who seek to bring a historical lens to Black economic power as it unfolded in community meetings, boardrooms, advertising offices, and franchise counters.