This book sold the same stove, suit, or pair of boots to anyone at the same printed price. When Rural Free Delivery brought it to the mailbox, the Sears, Roebuck catalog landed on Black families’ porches it turned shopping from a ritual of humiliation into something closer to dignity.
Here’s how the Sears mail‑order catalog quietly beat Jim Crow
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Sources
https://www.abhmuseum.org/back-when-sears-made-black-customers-a-priority/
https://fee.org/articles/when-sears-used-the-market-to-combat-jim-crow/
https://www.npr.org/2018/10/16/657923126/how-the-sears-catalog-was-revolutionary-in-the-jim-crow-era
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2018/10/19/18001734/sears-catalog-bankruptcy-jim-crow-racism-mail-order