When Sears Used the Market to Combat Jim Crow | Intellectual Takeout

When Sears Used the Market to Combat Jim Crow | Intellectual Takeout
"...Sears will not soon be forgotten.
But as we eulogize this beacon of American capitalism, we should also celebrate one of its lesser-known achievements: using markets to combat Jim Crow laws.
After The War
...History tells us of the brutality and overt racism that spread through the “separate but equal” South at this time.
Lynchings, beatings, and other atrocities terrorized the black population, leaving many scared to leave their homes to do simple tasks such as buying groceries or walking alone in unwelcoming neighborhoods.
As the Washington Post reports:
“Before the advent of the mail-order catalogue, rural black Southerners typically only had the option of shopping at white-owned general stores — often run by the owner of the same farm where they worked as sharecroppers.
Those store owners frequently determined what African Americans could buy by limiting how much credit they would extend.”
In many instances, store owners would refuse to sell items to their black customers until they were sure that the white consumers had completed their shopping..."
Read on.