Author: Sabine Frid-Bernards

In South Carolina we also have information from all of the twenty-one (2) cooperatives. Of the two-hundred thirty-three (233) board members, twenty-six (26) are African-American for 11.2% of the total while 88.7% are white. Racially, 68.3% of South Carolina’s people statewide are white, 27.8% are black, and 5.4% are Hispanic. 48.6% of South Carolina’s people are men and 51.4% are women, while the cooperative elected membership is 89.3% men, and 10.7% women.

Aiken Electric Cooperative
Berkeley Electric Cooperative
Black River Electric Cooperative
Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative
Broad River Electric Cooperative
Central Electric Power Cooperative
Coastal Electric Cooperative
Edisto Electric Cooperative
Fairfield Electric Cooperative
Horry Electric Cooperative
Laurens Electric Cooperative
Little River Electric Cooperative
Lynches River Electric Cooperative
Marlboro Electric Cooperative
Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative
Newberry Electric Cooperative
Palmetto Electric Cooperative
Pee Dee Electric Cooperative
Santee Electric Cooperative
Tri-County Electric Cooperative
York Electric Cooperative

Ten (10) of the twelve (12) cooperatives had readily available information in Virginia. The state is 70.5% white with 19.7% black and 8.9% Hispanic. Men narrowly lead women in the state by 50.8% to 49.2%.

A&N Electric Cooperative
BARC
Central Virginia Electric Cooperative
Community Electric Cooperative
Craig Botetourt Electric Cooperative
Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative
Northern Neck Electric Cooperative
Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative
Powell Valley Electric Cooperative
Prince George Electric Cooperative
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative
Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative
Southside Electric Cooperative

Texas is of course huge. Almost a quarter (25%) of the cooperatives
in the southern states are in Texas and twenty percent (20%) of
the elected cooperative board members. Of the seventy-three (73)
cooperatives, only forty-one (41) or 56.2% had accessible information on their websites and filings. 90.4% of the cooperative members were men, though 49.6% of the state were men, leaving 9.6% participation by women on coop governing boards though 50.4% of the state is women. Racially, 96.6% of cooperative leadership is white, 2% is African-American, and 1.4% is Hispanic, while the statewide demographics are 80% white, 12.4% black, and 38.6% Hispanic.

Bailey County Electric Cooperative Association
Bandera Electric Cooperative Inc
Bartlett Electric Cooperative Inc
Big Country Electric Cooperative Inc
Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative Inc
Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative Inc
Brazos Electric Power Cooperative
Central Texas Electric Cooperative Inc
Cherokee County Electric Cooperative Association
Coleman County Electric Cooperative Inc
Comanche Electric Cooperative Association
Concho Valley Electric Cooperative Inc
Cooke County Electric Cooperative Association
CoServ Electric
Deaf Smith Electric Cooperative Inc
Deep East Texas Electric Cooperative Inc
East Texas Electric Cooperative
Fannin County Electric Cooperative Inc
Farmers Electric Cooperative Inc
Fayette Electric Cooperative Inc
Fort Belknap Electric Cooperative Inc
Golden Spread Electric Cooperative Inc
Grayson-Collin Electric Cooperative Inc
Greenbelt Electric Cooperative Inc
Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative Inc
Hamilton County Electric Cooperative Association
Harmon Electric Association Inc
Heart of Texas Electric Cooperative Inc
HILCO Electric Cooperative Inc
Houston County Electric Cooperative Inc
J-A-C Electric Cooperative Inc
Jackson Electric Cooperative Inc
Jasper-Newton Electric Cooperative Inc
Karnes Electric Cooperative Inc
Lamar County Electric Cooperative Association
Lamb County Electric Cooperative Inc
Lea County Electric Cooperative Inc
Lighthouse Electric Cooperative Inc
Lyntegar Electric Cooperative Inc
Magic Valley Electric Cooperative Inc
Medina Electric Cooperative Inc
Mid-South Synergy
Navarro County Electric Cooperative Inc
Navasota Valley Electric Cooperative Inc
North Plains Electric Cooperative Inc
Nueces Electric Cooperative Inc
Panola-Harrison Electric Cooperative Inc
Pedernales Electric Cooperative Inc
Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative Inc
Rio Grande Electric Cooperative
Rita Blanca Electric Cooperative Inc
Rusk County Electric Cooperative Inc
Sam Houston Electric Cooperative Inc
San Bernard Electric Cooperative Inc
San Patricio Electric Cooperative Inc
South Plains Electric Cooperative Inc
South Texas Electric Cooperative Inc
Southwest Rural Electric Association Inc
Southwest Texas Electric Cooperative Inc
Swisher Electric Cooperative Inc
Taylor Electric Cooperative Inc
Tex-La Electric Cooperative of Texas
Tri-County Electric Cooperative Inc
Tri-County Electric Cooperative Inc. (OK)
Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative Inc
United Cooperative Services
Upshur Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation
Victoria Electric Cooperative Inc
Western Farmers Electric Cooperative
Wharton County Electric Cooperative Inc
Wise Electric Cooperative Inc
Wood County Electric Cooperative Inc

 

 

 

Of the twenty-three (23) cooperatives only a little more than half, twelve (12) in fact, were transparent enough to allow data to be assembled on governance. Of those twelve (12) there were only two (2) African- American board members in the state of the one hundred and twenty-three (123) recorded in these cooperatives. The
state population is 78.7% white, 17.1% black, and 5.0% Hispanic.
The cooperative elected leadership is 98.4% white, 1.6% black, and
0.0% Hispanic. 48.7% of the state are men and 92.2% of the elected
coop board members are men, while 51.3% of the state are women
accounting for 7.6% of the board members.

Appalachian Electric Cooperative
Caney Fork Electric Cooperative Inc.
Chickasaw Electric Cooperative
Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation
Duck River Electric Membership Corporation
Forked Deer Electric Cooperative
Fort Loudoun Electric Cooperative
Gibson Electric Membership Corporation
Holston Electric Cooperative
Meriwether Lewis Electric Cooperative
Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
Mountain Electric Cooperative Inc.
Pickwick Electric Cooperative
Plateau Electric Cooperative
Powell Valley Electric Cooperative
Sequachee Valley Electric Cooperative
Southwest Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association
Tennessee Valley Electric Cooperative
Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation
Upper Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation
Volunteer Energy Cooperative

Of the twenty-six (26) cooperatives all but four (4) furnished
fairly complete information. And though relatively
speaking the 9.8% African-American representation in
governance is better than many even compared to almost
one-third non-white population, much of this is to the
credit of the cooperatives in Pee Dee where one-third of the seats are
held by African-Americans and Roanoke, which stands along in all of
the twelve (12) Southern states as the only rural electric cooperative controlled by a racial minority with six (6) of the nine
(9) seats held by African-Americans. Men hold 87.7% of the seats to the 13.3% held by women in North Carolina where
48.7% of the population is male, and 51.3% is female.

Albemarle Electric Membership Corporation
Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation
Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation
Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative
Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative
Central Electric Membership Corporation
Edgecombe-Martin County Electric Membership Corporation
EnergyUnited
Four County Electric Membership Corporation
French Broad Electric Membership Corporation
Halifax Electric Membership Corporation
Haywood Electric Membership Corporation
Jones-Onslow Electric Membership Corporation
Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation
Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative
Pee Dee Electric Membership Corporation
Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation
Pitt & Greene Electric Membership Corporation
Randolph Electric Membership Corporation
Roanoke Electric Cooperative
Rutherford Electric Membership Corporation
South River Electric Membership Corporation
Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation
Tideland Electric Membership Corporation
Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation
Union Power Cooperative
Wake Electric Membership Corporation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Mississippi 37.5% of the state is African-American. Of the twenty-six (26) cooperatives only half (50%) of them or thirteen (13) supplied fully transparent information. Of the ninety-six (96%) board members where there is certainty, only two (2) or 2.6% are African-American. 93.8% of the board members are men, while 6.2% are women in a state where women outnumber men by 51.4% to 48.6%.

4-County
Alcorn County Electric
Central
Coahoma
Coast
Delta
Dixie
East Miss.
Magnolia
Monroe County
Natchez Trace
North Central Electric Power
North East Mississippi
Pearl River Valley
Pontotoc
Prentiss County
Singing River
Southern Pine
South Mississippi EPA
Southwest MS
Tallahatchie Valley
Tippah
Tishomingo County
Tombigbee
Twin County Electric Power Association
Yazoo Valley

Louisiana is a state where we have full information on all of the listed rural electric cooperatives but these are available partially because of transparency on the part of the cooperatives, but fully available because in 2013 in a celebration of an anniversary for the statewide cooperative association, industry suppliers and contractors generously subscribed to an ad book that featured all of the names and photographs of all of the board members for cooperatives at that time. There were only two (2) board member changes in the cooperatives that had not furnished pictures on their own documents, and both were residents of communities where the
population was over 90% white, leading to a high degree of certainty that they are white as well.

In a state where 32.5% of the population is African-American according to 2014 US Census estimates and only 63.4% are white, there is only one (1) African-American board member elected in the state. 93.8% of the elected board members are men compared to the statewide male population of 48.9% Women are in the majority in
Louisiana at 51.1%, but they make up only 8.3% of the cooperative board positions.

Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives
Beauregard Electric
Claiborne Electric Coop
DEMCO
Northeast Louisiana Electric Power Cooperative
Jefferson Davis Electric Cooperative
Panola-Harrison
Pointe Coupee Electric
South Louisiana Electric
Washington-St. Tammany Electric

Kentucky is the least diverse state among the twelve (12)
Southern states. Only one in twelve (12) residents is
African-American statewide with 85% of the population
white and only a little more than 8% black along with a
little over 3% Hispanic. Men make up 49.2% of the state
population, but occupy 91.7% of the seats on coop boards. Women
make up 50.8% of the state and only 8.3% of the coop seats. Of
the twenty-four (24) cooperatives, information was available from
eighteen (18) of them or 75%. The giant G&T cooperative made up of a sixteen (16) different Kentucky cooperatives, the East Kentucky Power Cooperative reflects both the scale of the statewide energy enterprise as well as its lack of diversity. The cooperative
controls $3.5 billion in assets serving 1.1 million members. Pictures of the management staff and the executive staff indicate they are all white. There is one Indian-American (not Native American) pictured on their website as part of their financial leadership, otherwise the entire enterprise is white. There are twenty-two (22) members of the board and all of them are white. The Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives has much the same profile with fifty-three (53)
members representing the twenty-four (24) coops in the state and with fifty-three (53) board members, forty-seven (47) of
whom are men, and all pictures of board members being white and with only one (1) board member from the Pennyrile
cooperative being African-American, Joe E. Rogers from Cadiz.

Big Sandy RECC
Blue Grass Energy
Clark Energy
Cumberland Vallery Electric
Farmers RECC
Fleming-Mason Energy
Grayson RECC
Gibson Electric Membership Corporation
Inter-County Energy
Jackson Energy
Jackson Purchase Energy
Kenergy Corp
Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives    Licking Valley RECC
Meade County RECC
Nolin RECC
Owen Electric
Pennyrile Electric
Salt River Electric
Shelby Energy
South Kentucky RECC
Taylor County RECC
Tri-County Electric
Warren RECC
West Kentucky RECC

Georgia relatively complete information is available from twenty-four (24) of the forty-two (42) cooperatives or 57.1%. Men constitute 48.8% of the population but hold 90.9% of the seats on cooperative boards, while women constitute 51.2% and only hold 9.1% of the seats. Of the known board membership 96.5% are white and 3.5% are African-American, although the state population counts 54.3% white, 31.5% black, and 9.3% Hispanic. There are no Hispanic cooperative board members.

Altamaha EMC
Amicalola EMC
Blue Ridge Mountain EMC
Canoochee EMC
Carroll EMC
Central Georgia EMC
Coastal Electric Cooperative
Cobb EMC
Colquitt EMC
Coweta-Fayette EMC
Diverse Power
Excelsior EMC
Flint Energies
Georgia Electric Membership Corp
Grady EMC
GreyStone Power Corporation
Habersham EMC
Hart EMC
Irwin EMC
Jackson EMC
Jefferson Energy Cooperative
Little Ocmulgee EMC
Middle Georgia EMC
Mitchell EMC
North Georgia EMC
Ocmulgee EMC
Oconee EMC
Okefenoke REMC
Planters EMC
Rayle EMC
Satilla REMC
Sawnee EMC
Slash Pine EMC
Snapping Shoals EMC
Southern Rivers Energy
Sumter EMC
Three Notch EMC
Tri-County EMC
Tri-State EMC
Upson EMC
Walton EMC
Washington EMC

To its credit at least the electrical cooperatives in Florida are a bit
more transparent with all fifteen (15) displaying pictures of their
board members. On the other hand that also makes it easier to
establish that of 158 board members in the state, 153 are white
or 96.8%, only 3 in this state where 16.8% of the population is
African-American are black or 1.9%, and where 24.1% identify as Hispanic, only one (1) cooperative board member in the state or 0.6% is Hispanic.

Central Florida Electric Cooperative
Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative
Clay Electric Cooperative
Escambia River Electric Cooperative
Florida Keys Electric Cooperative
Glades Electric Cooperative
Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative
Okefenoke Electric Cooperative
Peace River Electric Cooperative
Seminole Electric Cooperative
Sumter Electric Cooperative
Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative
Talquin Electric Cooperative
Tri-County Electric Cooperative
West Florida Electric Cooperative
Withlacoochee Electric Cooperative