department store

Examples of department store in the following topics:

• Popular Culture

  • The first department stores began appearing at the end of the 19th century.
  • Other department stores from this period included Wanamaker's in Philadelphia and Fields.
  • Most department stores were run by families.
  • Competition between department stores created the end-of-season sale and price wars.
  • These companies appealed to people who didn't live near a department store.

• A New Labor Force

  • For the first time, department stores employed African-American women as elevator operators and cafeteria waitresses.

• Labor in Wartime

  • The shortage of grocery clerks caused some stores to convert from service at the counter to self-service and to lower shelves to 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m), allegedly the height a woman could reach.
  • Before the war, most grocery stores, dry cleaners, drugstores, and department stores offered home delivery service.
  • But the labor shortage and gasoline and tire rationing caused many stores to stop delivery.

• Kennedy's Assassination

  • ., Johnson took the oath of office on board Air Force One just before it departed.
  • People gathered in department stores to watch the television coverage, while others prayed.

• The Emergence of the Civil Rights Movement

  • The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960, which led to the Woolworth department store chain removing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States. 
  • The primary event took place at the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth store, now the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.
  • Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country.

• Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides

  • The Greensboro sit-ins were a series of nonviolent protests which led to the Woolworth's department store chain reversing its policy of racial segregation in the Southern United States.
  • The primary event took place at the Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth's store.
  • Following store policy, the lunch counter staff refused to serve the African American men at the "whites only" counter, and the store's manager asked them to leave.
  • Kress, and McClellan stores and asked to be served at the lunch counters.
  • Police then ordered the demonstrators at all three locations to leave the stores.

• Mobilizing a Nation

  • The Department of Labor’s new Employment Service attracted workers from the South and Midwest to war industries in the East and was used by federal production offices to hire fresh employees.
  • The War Department drafted hundreds of thousands of African-American men into the army with equal pay, but placed them in segregated units with black soldiers led by white officers.
  • War Department to feed the troops, thus saving money that could be spent elsewhere on the military.
  • The Agriculture Department estimated that more than 20 million victory gardens were planted, with between nine and 10 million tons of fruit and vegetables harvested in these home and community plots, equaling all commercial production of fresh vegetables.
  • For the first time, department stores employed African-American women as elevator operators and cafeteria waitresses.

• Administrative Corruption

  • In addition to involvement in Teapot Dome, the Ohio Gang was believed to have been behind recurring acts of cronyism and corruption, including storing bootleg whisky inside the White House.
  • Graft and corruption charges permeated Harding's Department of Justice, run by Daugherty, who was involved with an illegal liquor scheme in which bootleggers got their hands on tens of thousands of cases of whiskey through bribery and kickbacks to government officials.

• Racial Tensions and Black Lives Matter

  • On the evening of February 26, 2012, Martin had gone to a convenience store and purchased candy and a canned drink.
  • As Martin returned from the store, he walked through a neighborhood that had been victimized by robberies several times that year.
  • On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, a 43-year-old African American man, was killed in Staten Island, New York City, after a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer put him in what has been described as a chokehold for about 15 to 19 seconds while arresting him for allegedly selling cigarettes, which Garner had denied.
  • On that day, the United States Department of Justice announced it would conduct an independent investigation.
  • On April 12, 2015, Baltimore Police Department officers arrested Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland, for possessing what the police alleged was an illegal switchblade.

• Civil Rights and Voting Rights

  • Kennedy asked for legislation "giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public—hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments," as well as "greater protection for the right to vote."
  • However, it did not include a number of provisions deemed essential by civil rights leaders, including protection against police brutality, ending discrimination in private employment, or granting the Justice Department power to initiate desegregation or make job discrimination lawsuits.