Department Stores and the Black Freedom Movement: Workers, Consumers, and Civil Rights from the 1930s to the 1980s (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

In this book, Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores, and broadens our understanding of historical transformations in African American class and labor formation. Built on the goals, organization, and momentum of earlier struggles for justice, the department store movement channeled the power of store workers and consumers to promote black freedom in the mid-twentieth century. Sponsoring lunch counter sit-ins and protests in the 1950s and 1960s, and challenging discrimination in the courts in the 1970s, this movement ended in the early 1980s with the conclusion of the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. affirmative action cases and the transformation and consolidation of American department stores. In documenting the experiences of African American workers and consumers during this era, Parker highlights the department store as a key site for the inception of a modern black middle class, and demonstrates the ways that both work and consumption were battlegrounds for civil rights. "Traci Parker examines the movement to racially integrate white-collar work and consumption in American department stores and its neglected role in the mid-twentieth century black freedom movement. Built on the goals, organization, and momentum of the 1930's 'Don't Buy Where You Can't Work' Movement, the department store movement recruited the power of store workers and labor unions, held behind-the-scene meetings with store officials in the postwar era, executed successful lunch counter sit-ins and selective patronage programs in the 1950s and 1960s, and challenged race discrimination in the courts in the 1970s. However, with the conclusion of the Sears, Roebuck, and Co. affirmative action cases, the movement effectively ended in 1981"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 16 1. Race and Class Identities in Early American Department Stores 30 2. Before Montgomery: Organizing the Department Store Movement 69 3. To All Store and Office Workers . . . Negro and White! Unionism and Antidiscrimination in the Department Store Industry 98 4. The Department Store Movement in the Postwar Era 131 5. Worker-Consumer Alliances and the Modern Black Middle Class, 1951–1970 163 6. Toward Wal-Mart: The Death of the Department Store Movement 198 Epilogue 240 Notes 252 Bibliography 300 Index 316 A 316 B 316 C 317 D 318 E 319 F 319 G 320 H 320 I 321 J 321 K 321 L 322 M 322 N 323 O 324 P 324 Q 324 R 325 S 325 T 326 U 327 V 327 W 327 Y 328 Z 328