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campaign to overturn this discrimination really dates from the 1935-40 period.
Even so, this was not, in these years a major campaign, and actions against the
department stores were rather sporadic, probably because very few Blacks could,
during the Depression, afford the downtown store (this would change somewhat
during World War II). Nevertheless, this issue was very deeply felt by the local
NAACP leadership and by others in the community, and it raises certain questions
about the relationship of the Black freedom movement to the broader Baltimore
community.
The issue involved was simple: the downtown stores did not want Blacks,
Black women in particular, shopping in their stores. The forms this discrimination
took were somewhat flexible and, over time, evolved. Walter Sondheim was part of
the management of Hothschild Kohn and Company, owners of one of the largest
and most prestigious depanment stores, from 1929; as he testified over five decades
later, the downtown stores
had a policy of actually discouraging Black customers at all, in any sense of
the word. Then there was a practice of not discouraging these customers,
except in departments where you sold things that were tried on, like dresses,
hats, and underwear — things of this sort Then there got to be this
incredibly insulting policy of saying that blacks could buy things in stores, but
weren't allowed to return them. So the sales check was marked in some way
to indicate that it was a final sale or that it couldn't be returned. ^
In February 1936, the issue of department store discrimination came up
during a City-Wide Young People's Forum mass meeting. Lillie Jackson and
several other leading NAACP activists expressed themselves forcefully on the issue.
By mid-1938 the Baltimore NAACP branch was publicly promising a campaign
against the downtown stores; in a letter to the Afro, Lillie Jackson linked this
campaign directly to the fact she was refused service at Hothschild Kohn. Actions
followed in which Black women who were refused the right to shop confronted top
managers and complained directly to them. Lillie Jackson herself on a number of
occasions challenged management officials including Walter Sondheim. At least
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