Operation Breadbasket was an organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of black communities across the United States. Operation Breadbasket was launched on February 11, 1966, under the leadership of Jesse Jackson. Its primary objective was to promote the employment of African Americans by companies operating in black communities and support the growth of black-owned businesses. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. described the core principle of Breadbasket as the belief that African Americans should not support businesses that denied them job opportunities, career advancement, or basic courtesy. To achieve their goals, the activists of Operation Breadbasket adopted a strategy called "selective patronage." They focused their initial campaign on dairy companies and supermarket chains. They organized pickets and encouraged boycotts of stores that carried products from the targeted companies, aiming to pressure them into improving their employment practices and support for the black community.
In 1967, Operation Breadbasket was established as a national organization, with King appointing Jackson as its national director. Within a year, the organization had successfully carried out over 40 boycotts, leading to the employment of more than 8,000 African American workers by various companies. However, although the operation achieved hiring agreements with several major corporations, it faced challenges in monitoring whether these companies actually fulfilled their commitments. Internal conflicts and the burden of responsibility on Jackson and the new leaders following King's assassination eventually led to the termination of Operation Breadbasket in December 1971.
Operation Breadbasket was launched on February 11, 1966, under the leadership of Jesse Jackson. Its primary objective was to promote the employment of African Americans by companies operating in black communities and support the growth of black-owned businesses.
Chicago Breadbasket went on to target Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottlers, and then supermarket chains, winning 2,000 new jobs worth $15 million a year in new income to the black community in the first 15 months of its operation.
Operation Breadbasket, program begun in 1962 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) that aimed at improving the economic status of African Americans through a boycott of white-owned and white-operated businesses that refused to employ African Americans or to buy products sold by African American-owned businesses. After initial ...
This is the first full history of Operation Breadbasket, the interfaith economic justice program that transformed into Jesse Jackson's Operation PUSH (now ...
01 Feb 2024 · David J. Garrow, author of the Pulitzer Prize book, BEARING THE CROSS, described the “launching a new project called “Operation Breadbasket.” This program sought better employment opportunities for black workers at companies whose products were purchased by black consumers.
13 Jan 2020 · Operation Breadbasket News, 1969, Rev. Martin L. Deppe Papers, 30/8. "Keep a slice of the 'bread' in your community." That was the slogan of Operation Breadbasket, the transformative economic program initiated in Chicago by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
"Operation Breadbasket is a narrative of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Operation Breadbasket, 1966-1971, an economic empowerment project that Martin Luther King Jr brought to Chicago as part of the Chicago Freedom Movement.
