Race and Class Identities in Early American Department Stores

An exploration of the racial and class dimensions of early American department stores is provided in this chapter. It reveals why these retail institutions became prime locations for protesting and claiming civil rights. Early American department stores operated under the principle of free entry and browsing—a principle that helped usher in a new conception of American democracy that was intricately tied to the practices of consumption that the department store fostered. Stores, however, also conformed to and endorsed aspects of Jim Crow (including notions of racial order and purity): many stores received African Americans under the principle of free entry and browsing but then constrained their movement and participation in this space; and stores hired blacks as maintenance and stockroom workers, elevator operators, porters, and maids—all invisible from the salesroom floor—but barred them from white-collar staff positions in sales, clerical, and management. The racialized democracy of the department store shaped the ways that race and class were imagined and employed to create both worker and consumer identities, making department stores an epitome of racial discrimination and thus an ideal site to challenge racial discrimination.