Department stores and the black freedom movement : workers, consumers, and civil rights from the 1930s to the 1980s / Traci Parker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parker, Traci, author.

Series:

John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture

The John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century.

African Americans.

African Americans--Civil rights.

History.

Department stores--United States--History--20th century.

Department stores.

African American white collar workers--History--20th century.

African American white collar workers.

African American consumers--Political activity--History--20th century.

African American consumers.

Middle class African Americans--History--20th century.

Middle class African Americans.

Political participation.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 313 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2019]

Summary:

"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.

Contents:

Race and class identities in early American department stores

Before Montgomery : organizing the department store movement

To all store and office workers, Negro and white! : unionism and anti-discrimination in the department store industry

The department store movement in the postwar era

Worker-consumer alliances and the modern black middle class, 1951-1970

Toward Wal-Mart : the death of the department store movement.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781469648668

1469648660

9781469648675

1469648679

OCLC:

1043988082