Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.
By Talia Lunken
The 1930s in Baltimore, MD, can be characterized as a watershed for the freedom movement.[1] Baltimore was the nation’s seventh-largest city, heavily industrialized, and there was a long history of labor strife. The city was a border city within a border state, resembling a northern industrial city with Black people enjoying more rights than in the south; however, Jim Crow was still a reality.[2] In 1929, nationally, the “Buy Where You Work” or “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” marketing campaign was used to encourage black individuals to only shop at businesses that hired black employees.[3] In Baltimore, the “Buy Where You Can Work” Campaign laid the organizational and ideological foundations for the modern Civil Rights Movement.
The “Buy Where You Can Work” Campaign in Baltimore consisted of three phases. The first phase began with Prophet Kiowa Costonie who arrived in Baltimore in early June 1933.[4] He cultivated relationships with many preachers in the community and worked freely out of some of the most important churches.[5] Unlike other spiritualists at the time, Costonie was deeply interested in African American identity and politics. Alongside a committee of three others, he surveyed white-owned stores on Pennsylvania Avenue, “the commercial heart of the Black community in northwest Baltimore.”[6] When Costonie saw an overwhelmingly white sales team, he demanded they begin hiring Black people immediately, threatening a community boycott if they didn’t comply. In September 1933, Costonie initiated what would become the “Buy Where You Can Work” Campaign in Baltimore.[7]
This call for boycotts was not a new tactic, as various cities across the United States attempted boycotts of white owned stores in an effort to increase hiring of blacks. These cities included Chicago in 1929 and 1930, the most famous and successful at the time, Toledo, Cleveland, Detroit, and New York, among others. Two years prior to the “Buy Where You Can Work” Campaign in Baltimore, the Baltimore Urban League (BUL) had made a job boycott a major strategic goal; however, the campaign ultimately didn’t happen.[9]
The threat of Costonie’s boycott appeared at first not to need a follow through, as “Tommy Tucker’s Five-and-Dime store, Goodman’s Five-and-Dime, and Max Meyers’ shoe store all agreed to hire Black clerks. Howard Cleaners and Dyers announced a new branch on Pennsylvania Avenue with a Black manager and all- Black staff, and the Atlantic and Pacific Tea (A&P) stores, a frequent target of Black boycotts elsewhere, claimed that it had hired a Morgan College graduate as a clerk.”[11] However, other white owned stores were noncommittal. As a result, Costonie gave the deadline of October 15 to the managers of A&P, and the American Stores Company (ASco) to hire Black employees, or picket lines would go up. Both had agreed to hire black male clerks by October 7th. By this time, Costonie was starting to put together a coalition. By mid-October, the A&P market started to say the newly hired black clerks were “inefficient” and fired them, replacing them with white clerks.[12] It also became clear that most of the businesses on Pennsylvania Avenue were not honoring their commitments to hire black individuals.[13]
The second phase of the campaign can be categorized as the broadening of the boycott into a direct action campaign from October to the middle of December. Costonie began to work with the City-Wide Young People’s Forum. The Forum was founded in 1931 by Juanita Jackson and built to address the problems that confronted Baltimore’s black youth. Together, the Forum and Costonie intended to launch a direct action campaign on Pennsylvania Avenue.
On October 18th, George Armwood was murdered, and this temporarily diverted the job campaign, as attention shifted to protest lynching.[14] He was arrested for assaulting a white woman and a white mob of around 5,000, “took him from his cell, tortured, mutilated, beat, and hanged him.”[15] They proceeded to drag his corpse around town, hanging it again and burning it. The murder was not unique, but the response it generated was. Many Baltimoreans of both races mounted a wave of demonstrations.[16] Anti-lynching protests took many forms, from demonstrations to parades.[17]
By the start of November, with the anti-lynching protests entering the third week, the job campaign’s activities restarted. A broadened coalition began, centering on the Forum and the local chapter of the Housewives League, and a Citizens Committee with representatives from different allied groups. November 2, the coalition demanded “all stores in Black neighborhoods employ entirely Black staffs immediately, that Black managers be hired by January 1, and that all white clerks recently hired be fired.”[18] The Picket lines went up on November 18th after a call for 2,000 people to pledge to not shop at A&P. The response from A&P’s management after their shock with the community mobilization was an agreement to hire 21 Black clerks within two weeks, continue hiring Blacks, and have three Black managers by March 1, 1934.[19] This was the first successful mass direct action of the campaign, with over 4200 people.[20]
The 1700 block of Pennsylvania Ave was the focus in order to maximize the effect of the picket line. Picketing began on December 8 alongside the Christmas shopping season.[21] For about two weeks protesters picketed in shifts between 9 am and 9 pm.[22] Business fell drastically and while there were indications of willingness to negotiate, the situation grew tense, with Costonie getting threats on his life and picketers getting arrested. Ultimately, on December 15, during a City-Wide Young People’s Forum meeting, three carloads of police came in to serve Costione with a temporary injunction ordering the immediate cessation of picketing.[23] Costonie was able to get away and in the short-term the police didn’t succeed and picket lines went up again the next morning. With arrest and a $1000 bond on the line, Citizen Committee leadership decided they had to comply. Just over a week after picketing on Pennsylvania Ave began, it was called off, ending the direct action phase.[24]
The third phase of the movement shifted to litigation with the priority being the overturning the temporary injunction in court. W.A.C Hughes, the Forum’s legal advisor, and his partner took the case with support from the national NAACP. The case dragged on for months and on May 24, 1934, the judge made his decision, with the main legal issue being whether the picketing was an economic dispute, which was legal under the recently passed Norris-LaGuardia Act or a racial dispute, which was not protected by law. The movement’s lawyers claimed it was an economic dispute, while the merchants claimed it was a racial dispute, while also arguing force and intimidation were used. The judge made the injunction permanent and agreed with the merchants.[25] The Citizens’ Committee held three mass meetings in June 1934 to raise money for the appeal and build public support; thousands attended. The national NAACP pledged a contribution of $100 for every $400 raised locally, and within less than a month, over $1500 was raised.[26] This mobilization of funds was the last and broadest mass activity in Baltimore’s Buy Where You Can Campaign. The appeal was filed, and on April 10, 1935, the Court of Appeals affirmed the court’s ruling, and there was no money for further appeals.[27]
Following the injunction, Costonie distanced himself from leadership, and after it was made permanent, he disappeared from Baltimore. He disagreed with the direction the movement was taking and believed the money raised would have been better spent by setting up black businesses; however, there was little support for the idea. From the start, there was tension over the role of women in the movement from Costonie. As the movement developed, so did the role of black women, and they played an increasingly important role. The mother and daughter team of Lillie and Juanita Jackson and the Baltimore Housewives’ League played a pivotal role, and the Citizens’ Committee could boast of 25% female participation. Of the 26 specifically named in the picketing injunction, 18 of them were women.[28]
The Baltimore Buy Where You Can Campaign exemplified how local black communities used economic leverage to challenge racial exclusion. As the Afro-American newspaper reflected in 1934, the campaign “changed the mindset of Black Baltimore.”[29] Today in Baltimore, you can find the Buy Where You Can Work Campaign & Higher Education Marker (pictured to the right) at the intersection of Pennsylvania Ave and McMechen Street on Pennsylvania Ave.[30]
[1]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[2]Dighe, Ranjit S., and Andor Skotnes. Enterprise & Society 16, no. 2 (2015): 475–77. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26567924.
[3]“Research Guides: Consumer Advertising during the Great Depression: A Resource Guide: Black Businesses and the Advertising Industry.” Black Businesses and the Advertising Industry – Consumer Advertising During the Great Depression: A Resource Guide – Research Guides at Library of Congress. Accessed October 5, 2025. https://guides.loc.gov/consumer-advertising-great-depression/ black-businesses-and-advertising-industry.
[4]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[5]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[6]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[7]Ibid.
[8]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[9]Ibid.
[10]Brizee, Stephanie. “1933: ‘Buy Where You Can Work.’” The Baltimore Story, November 7, 2023. https://www.thebaltimorestory.org/history-1/1933-buy-where-you-can-work.
[11]Ibid.
[12]Ibid.
[13]Ibid.
[14]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[15]Powell, Christopher. Labour / Le Travail 73 (2014): 377–80. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24244300.
[16]Ibid.
[17]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[18]Ibid.
[19]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[20]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[21]Ibid.
[22]Yoes, Sean. “The American Non-Violent Protest Movement Is Rooted in Baltimore.” AFRO American Newspapers, January 25, 2022. https://afro.com/the-american-non-violent-protest-movement-is-rooted -in-baltimore/.
[23]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[24]Ibid.
[25]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[26]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[27]Skotnes, Andor. “6. Buy Where You Can Work, 1933–1934” In A New Deal for All?: Race and Class Struggles in Depression-Era Baltimore, 140-162. New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395843-011.
[28]Skotnes, Andor. “‘Buy Where You Can Work’: Boycotting for Jobs in African-American Baltimore, 1933-1934.” Journal of Social History 27, no. 4 (1994): 735–61. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3789081.
[29]Yoes, Sean. “The American Non-Violent Protest Movement Is Rooted in Baltimore.” AFRO American Newspapers, January 25, 2022. https://afro.com/the-american-non-violent-protest-movement-is-rooted -in-baltimore/.
[30]Buy where you can work campaign & higher education historical markers. Accessed October 5, 2025. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=168767.