Civil Rights and Pre-World War II Marketing

Before World War II African Americans were seen as advertisers as unimportant.  Many different employers that were run by white men were unwilling to hire black people, even in predominantly black neighborhoods.  Due to this the NAACP recognized that they needed to show their consumer power.  Since that was the case, they decided to start a boycott based movement called "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work".  This movement targeted businesses that would not hire black people or had a strong lack of black people hired.  This movement was important mainly because it established black people as a relatively dominant consumer power.  On top of the importance of getting black people into a strongly white dominated work force it also paved the way into several more historically noted boycotts that would forever change America and it's feelings on segregation. 

The other advertisement is a poster for a movie called, "Harlem Rides the Range".  The purpose of this movie was to give black youth and their families the Western experience.  This movie featured an all black cast and was one of the many films during the time that featured an all black cast.  Many movies created by whites did not star black people and if they did would often feature putting them in more stereotypical roles.  Movies with all black casts on the other hand would put them in roles that were far less stereotypical which made them more relateable.  For example, in "Harlem Rides the Range" the main character is a black cowboy which was almost never seen in a movie trying to draw a more white audience.