This chapter summarizes socioeconomic, political, and environmental injustices minorities face in Mississippi and describes Cooperation Jackson’s community-led approach and efforts to address these systemic issues through a just transition. Cooperation Jackson seeks to build a vibrant, ecologically regenerative economy by organizing and empowering the structurally under- and unemployed sections of the working class.

The author describes the socioeconomic disparities in Jackson, Mississippi due to decades of policies that have “only served the interests of the rich,” coupled with environmental and climate-related risks and hazards. Cooperation Jackson envisions a radical approach to a just transition that connects day-to-day challenges—such as securing access to clean air and water and to healthy and plentiful food—with these broader disparities and system issues. Their approach involves imagining and developing grassroots-led initiatives to advance a “social and solidarity economy.” The author details Cooperation Jackson’s pilot projects, which include a green cooperative ecosystem that reinforces and builds upon itself.