Selective Buying Campaign

Selective Buying Campaign. March Route to Retail. White businessmen failed to integrate their stores and remove "Colored” signs from water fountains and dressing rooms as promised in 1962. As a result, Miles College students led by Frank Dukes organized a boycott against the stores. They recruited students from other colleges, including Whites from Birmingham-Southern College, to join them. Because a 1921 Alabama law made boycotts against businesses illegal, the students called their effort the Selective Buying Campaign. They sent out flyers urging Birmingham Blacks to wear overalls to church on Easter Sunday rather than buy new clothes for the holiday. The result was a dramatic drop in sales at White-owned stores downtown., Paired marker , May 6, 1963 , One of the key non-violent strategies used in the 1963 Birmingham Movement is called "selective buying." By refusing to buy clothes from White-owned retail stores during the busy Easter shopping season, Blacks put economic pressure on stores that treat them unfairly. Here, a woman holds a sign that proclaims downtown Birmingham lunch counters should be open to all, including Blacks. Comedian and activist Dick Gregory, who stands behind her, leads marchers on this day. However, police stop them before they reach the retail district., "Why spend first-class money and be treated as a third-class citizen?" , From 1962 flyers promoting the college student-led boycotts, Lesson B2: Discuss the purpose and potential impact of an economic boycott.