2026 BHM: Secret Black Systems That Kept Us Alive (And Still Do)

When America refused to provide, Black connections were built brick by brick, for us, by us. From mutual aid societies to insurance companies, these systems were not charity — they were lifelines we carefully designed to protect, educate, and sustain Black lives.

Don’t let anyone tell you Black people can’t come together to build — history proves we always have. In a society that exploited, excluded, and dehumanized Black communities while denying us safety, stability, and opportunity, these systems became tools for survival and collective advancement. While we often hear of organizations such as the NAACP and the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, there’s a lot more where that came from, and they’re rarely discussed.

Let’s unpack some more of these historic networks, how they functioned, and why they mattered.

Our Resiliance is Unmatched

We as Black folks have been through so much in history that we’ve become masters of communal architecture. When America defaulted on its promises, we became our own safety net. When it comes to “making a way out of no way” — we perfected it.

The Free African Society

Reading DuBois in The Philadelphia Negro writing about Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, two former slaves who purchased their own freedom and that of their families and went on to be significant leaders in the local community and trailblazers in African-American history. Jones… pic.twitter.com/XWURFRT3XB

— Just Matt. (@obatunse) January 31, 2026

Founded by former slaves Richard Allen and Absalom Jones in 1787 as a cornerstone of Black self-governance, the Free African Society functioned as a sovereign social safety net, providing mutual aid, medical care, and widow support when the state provided nothing for newly freed Black folks, per Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

The Phoenix Society

Rev. Theodore Wright, a Presbyterian pastor & first black graduate from a US Seminary, was a founding member of American Anti-Slavery Society. He helped lead a major anti-slavery postal campaign in 1835 which led many congregations throughout the North and South to reject slavery pic.twitter.com/fJ4UYejzmk

— Mika Edmondson (@mika_edmondson) December 7, 2017

Founded in 1833 in New York City by leaders like Samuel Cornish and Theodore Wright, the Phoenix Society was an early powerhouse for Black education and uplift. The society aimed to visit every colored family to assess their needs, advocate for education, clothe poor children, establish libraries and more, per their list of goals. 

The Wilberforce Colony

Fed up with the state-sponsored harassment due to Ohio’s “Black Laws,” the Wilberforce Colony was established in Biddulph Township in Upper Canada in 1829 by newly freed Black folks with a goal to establish freedom, self-determination, and equality, per Ontario Heritage Trust.

How Did They Do It?

College fraternity, Wilberforce University, c. 1880s pic.twitter.com/xClLQbR1KB

— AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY (@AfricanArchives) July 10, 2025

The settlement was composed by African Americans from New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, and other locations. With the help of Ohio quakers, the settlers were able to purchase 800 acres of land from the Canada Company, per Ontario Heritage Trust. 

Who Were the Families?

Just three years later, the colony had 32 families, had a sawmill and two schools, Baptist and Methodist congregations, a temperance society, a blacksmith, a shoemaker, and a tailor. Though the community dwindled by the 1840s, their descendants remained in the area well into the 21st century, per the outlet.

African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

On Sep. 3, 1783, Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, purchased his freedom with his earnings as a self-employed tradesman. Once freed, he changed his name from "Negro Richard" to "Richard Allen." He was qualified to preach in 1784. pic.twitter.com/JyaBi3Q2QI

— Thabiti Anyabwile (@ThabitiAnyabwil) September 3, 2019

Born from a righteous walkout against segregated pews, the African Methodist Episcopal Church became the ultimate “for us, by us” institution, founded by former slaves Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Established back in 1787, the church served as a spiritual powerhouse and a political war room for Black liberation, and a safe space for prayer without harassment and discrimination, per AME.

A.M.E. Still Standing Today 

Over 200 years later, the church continues to thrive today. African Methodist Episcopal church has congregations across five continents with a reported 2.5 million church goers, and continues to stand firm on their spiritual beliefs and unapologetically Black approach. 

The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN)

#OTD Martha Minerva Franklin (Oct 29, 1870 – Sept 26, 1968). A nurse, Ms Franklin graduated from Philadelphia's Women's Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1897 and was working in New Haven, CT, 10yrs later when she began organizing Black nurses and founded the  National… pic.twitter.com/Rj4Fu7MHKp

— Jazz the Professor (@Jazzieeiswhoiam) October 29, 2024

When Black nurses were excluded from hospitals, training programs, and professional networks, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) created a space to advance careers, improve healthcare access in Black communities, and elevate standards in the profession. African American nurse Martha Minerva Franklin founded the organization alongside 52 other Black nurses in 1908, per National Nurses United. 

New York African Society for Mutual Relief (NYASMR)

Established in 1808 by Black leaders and abolitionists, Rev. Peter Williams Jr. and William Hamilton, the New York African Society for Mutual Relief was one of the first — and most significant — mutual aid organizations established by and for Black folks, per Black Past.

Why NYASMR Is Significant

@blackhistoryuniversity

New York African Mutual Relief Located in the Five Points neighborhood, the African Hall for Mutual Relief became an important meeting place, a school, and a stop on the Underground Railroad. The Society formed a much-needed safety net for African American families and small businesses. Members’ dues paid for burial costs and a form of health insurance. If a member died, their widow and children received financial support. The New York African Society for Mutual Relief seamlessly blended social support—offering aid to widows, orphans, and the sick—with abolitionist efforts and entrepreneurial success. In eighteen hundred and twenty, Juliette Toussaint, wife of renowned hairdresser Pierre Toussaint, purchased a tenement and adjoining building for the Society’s meeting hall. Her donation of one thousand eight hundred dollars, in contrast to the Society’s twenty-five-cent monthly dues, was monumental. The building doubled as a safe haven on the Underground Railroad for fugitives heading north. Earlier, in eighteen hundred and ten, Juliette Toussaint donated funds for a plot of land and meetinghouse, and the New York Legislature granted the African Society for Mutual Relief (NYASMR) its petition—making it the first incorporated African American association. Located at Forty-two Orange Street (now Baxter Street), the meetinghouse became a hub for land acquisition, legal defense, and cooperative enterprise. Members built homes, cultivated farms, and laid the foundation for a community rooted in dignity and self-reliance during a time when Black life was under constant legal and physical threat. The Society’s incorporation was celebrated with parades, silk banners, and signs, symbolizing a rising movement. It quickly grew in size and purpose, even serving as a brokerage house for real estate investment—the most successful nineteenth-century effort by New York’s Black artisans and craftsmen to invest collectively in property. Its first president, William Hamilton, a carpenter rumored to be the son of Alexander Hamilton, and secretary Henry Sipkins, a mechanic, led a membership that included bootmakers, real estate dealers, and notable entrepreneurs like Cato Alexander, a formerly enslaved man who went on to open one of New York’s finest restaurants. By the eighteen-thirties, however, Five Points had begun to deteriorate—its foundations unstable due to an old collection pond. Rising tensions and the influx of immigrants shifted the neighborhood’s character, and the anti-abolition riots of eighteen thirty-four devastated the Meeting Hall. The Society relocated first to Greenwich Street, then to West Sixty-sixth Street, in a growing Black enclave. Despite the violence, NYASMR thrived economically. In eighteen hundred and fifty-two, it collected one hundred ninety-two dollars and seventy-five cents in dues and earned two thousand dollars from property rentals. By eighteen hundred and sixty, its assets reached fifteen thousand dollars, making it the only Black organization in the United States whose wealth stemmed largely from real estate investment. The New York African Society for Mutual Relief seamlessly blended social support—offering aid to widows, orphans, and the sick—with abolitionist efforts and entrepreneurial success. It stood as a pioneering example of how social justice and economic strategy could thrive together. By the nineteen-forties, as social dynamics evolved, membership declined, and the Society closed after World War Two. #BlackHistory #UndergroundRailroad #JulietteToussaint #PierreToussaint #MutualAid #FivePointsNYC #BlackEntrepreneurs #RealEstateLegacy #CommunityWealth #AbolitionistMovement #NYHistory #HiddenHistory #BlackExcellence #CooperativeEconomics #HistoricPreservation #AfricanAmericanLegacy #cooperatives #mutualAidz #mutualrelief #TheGistOfFreedom #blackHistorvUniversity #NewYorkAfrican

♬ original sound – blackhistoryuniversity

Amid a hostile system, The New York African Society for Mutual Relief (NYASMR) became the first incorporated African American association in the United States, granted legal status by the New York Legislature, per Mapping the African American Past. The organization provided benefits such as burial costs, health insurance, and support for widows and children, per the outlet.

The African Insurance Company

Founded in Philadelphia in 1810, the African Insurance Company was the first Black-owned insurance company in the U.S. It provided death and burial coverage for Black families shut out of white-run financial institutions, building an early economic safety net rooted in community care and mutual support, per Black Past.

Built to Survive

Much like Black Wall Street and other mutual aid societies formed during Reconstruction and the Great Migration, we’ve always come together in the thick of chaos. These are all examples of the same unity and resilience that has sustained our communities through generations.