Boycotts Work!
A&P Store 1938, Courtesy of the Library of Congress
In 1927, Chicago’s Urban League chapter organized a local boycott 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 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. .
