Early US Direct Action Protest
A&P Store 1938, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
My newest book will be on real and virtual book store shelves on January 19, 2017. It's entitled Southern Food and Civil Rights: Feeding the Revolution. Until then, I'll be delivering up appetizers from the book. In 1927, Chicago’s Urban League chapter launched an unsuccessful campaign against the A&P grocery store company which was refusing to hire African American clerks and managers. Two years later, the black-owned newspaper The Chicago Whip launched a “Don’t Spend Your Money Where You Can’t Work” boycott that mobilized black South Side residents in the city’s Bronzeville section. As a result, the slogan and direct action strategy gained popularity in black neighborhoods in urban centers across the country.
