The American economy crumbled in 1929 with the financial crash, which began a period known as ‘The Great Depression.’

As with all economic downturns, those closest to subsistence living suffer the most, leaving African Americans disproportionately affected. Feagin (2014) found that “By 1932, half of Black workers in cities were unemployed. Extreme hunger or starvation was often their lot” (p. 58).

In Saint Louis, it was much the same: “Blacks suffered from devastatingly high rates of poverty, crime, and disease; low life expectancy; and high rates of infant mortality and illegitimacy… [and] relatively few could afford to own homes” (Skotnes, 2013, p. 31; Greenberg, 2009). Effectively cutting Blacks off from the economy–even a depressed and struggling one–whites fulfilled their own eugenics arguments that Blacks were lazy, sickly, and immoral. 

As African Americans faced the Great Depression, the “Buy Where You Can Work” movement began in Baltimore and spread to various cities including St. Louis.

A man known in African American circles as the Prophet Kiowa Costonie (also known as “the new Messiah”) began to generate support to resist anti-Black practices. As historian Skotnes (1994) noted, “Costonie initiated a racial advancement campaign to force white-owned stores in the African-American community to hire African-American workers” (p. 735). These “Buy Where You Can Work” campaigns occurred in over 35 cities across the United States.

As they gained attention, they created a wider movement that brought together Black activists from many different organizations. In many ways, the “Buy Where You Can Work” campaign created the momentum and social organizations that led to the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s (Skotnes, 1994, p. 736).