|
221
Company (ASCO) had been arranged that "will reveal the attitude of these
companies." He thanked his supporters which included "Shiloh Baptist Church and
several local ministers who were urging their congregations to back him up," and he
*)\
ended the meeting with faith healing.
At this point, Costonie and his most natural allies, the young activists of the
City-Wide Young People's Forum, found each other. Juanita Jackson Mitchell
recalled:
When I first saw him, and he proposed this boycott, he was at Perkins
Square Baptist Church. He came to us and asked us to support it. We had
him speak at the Forum. He said why not go after the A and P stores, so we
said fine. When we said we'll start with the one down here at the corner
across from our house, he said "Oh no. Miss Jackson, we can strike all the A
and P stores in the whole northwest section." It was his idea, he took the
initiative, he brought us the plan. He had the vision. We voted to support
the boycott, and with it we took all the preachers we had and the
Afro-everything. We supported him, we were on the picket lines, we
furnished the bodies and everything. He never had any big organization. It
was our army or freedom fighters that was the bodies for his program really.
And we supported him 100 percent.
Boycott momentum was growing. Costonie, his supporters among the Baptist
ministers and congregations, and his organization of 80 or so young men, who were
in training to fill any jobs the movement opened (the Opportunity Makers Club),
were now joined by the Forum activists, their allies, and another older community
organization, the Baltimore Housewives League. At a Forum-sponsored rally to
kick off the Buy Where You Can Work Campaign, A. C. MacNeal of the Chicago
Whip, a leader of the pioneering Chicago boycott movement that had created
thousands of jobs for Black workers, spoke. He urged those present to "create jobs
for Negro youth by militantly organizing and using your buying power." The rally
again culminated in an ultimatum to white businesses, the A & P and ASCO chain
stores now included, delivered by Costonie: start hiring Blacks by October 15.^
To enforce this ultimatum, the Buy Where You Can Work Movement immediately
began a series of mass marches and meetings, some with participants numbering in
|
