"Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" campaign launched (1929)

CTL-E-2893 · Event · other · 1929

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

The "Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" campaign begins in Chicago in 1929: James Hale Porter, Chicago Whip founder Joseph D. Bibb (who coined the slogan), and NAACP executive A.C. MacNeal organize boycotts and daily picketing of white merchants who refused to hire Black workers — the first direct action among Black Chicago civil-rights organizations.

Relationships

Bronzeville — held at
The 1929 campaign's picketing took place on 47th Street in Bronzeville.

Referenced by

"Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" boycott pickets on 47th Street — related to → this record
A.C. MacNeal — initiated → this record
Joseph D. Bibb — initiated → this record

Sources

The Handy African American History Answer Book — "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" entry
WA Commission on African American Affairs — "The Don't Buy Where You Can't Work Boycott of 1929"
Frederick Douglass Opie — Southern Food and Civil Rights (excerpt)

Record CTL-E-2893 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 3 sources · 4 mapped relationships · CTL research: RELP-001.
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Cite as: CultureTechLens, “"Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" campaign launched (1929) (CTL-E-2893),” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, October 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-2893/

Chicago: CultureTechLens. “"Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" campaign launched (1929) (CTL-E-2893).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-2893/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). "Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" campaign launched (1929) (CTL-E-2893) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-2893/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “"Don't Spend Your Money Where You Can't Work" campaign launched (1929) (CTL-E-2893).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-2893/

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From the Archive

The archive in pictures

Black enterprise — the shops, banks, and trades that built it. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Negro barber shop. Southside of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Negro grocery store, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941Photo: Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Only Negro store of its kind in the U.S., at 2933 State St., Chicago, Ill, Chicago, 1941Photo: Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963, collector, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

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