Frank W. Woolworth: The Man, His Business, and the Struggle for Women's and Civil Rights

TimeShift from Woolworth's Store, 9 Mile Road, Ferndale - 1928

This journey through time takes us back to 1928. In this TimeShift we will focus on the role Woolworth’s stores had on America’s social and economic development.

The population of Detroit and its newly developed suburbs were growing rapidly, as automobile makers, such as Ford Motor Company, attracted workers from all parts of the country. Increased work and higher wages led to the development of America’s middle class. Retail stores, namely Woolworth’s sprung up to supply the new suburban residents with their household needs.

Topics discussed include the role of individuals in shaping history, domestic conflict and tension, suburbanization, institutionalized racism, segregation, the American middle class, the Civil Rights Movement, unionization and labor relations, Women’s Rights Movement, the Great Migration, economics and innovative retail concepts.

LOCATION

Quick Facts

The first Woolworth’s store was opened by Frank Winfield Woolworth on February 22, 1879. It was called “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store” in Utica, New York.

Woolworth was the pioneer of five-and-dime fixed-price retailing.

Woolworth’s store clerks were predominantly women. In 1937, a group of Detroit Woolworth’s workers held a sit-in protest that spread across the country. They won their battle for better working conditions, better wages, and unionization.

Woolworth’s introduced what would become known as the Food Court. The first in-store diners, known as lunch counters, debuted in the company’s British stores. They soon became a big hit in the United States, however, most lunch counters in the South were segregated until the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s.

UNIONIZATION AND THE FEMALE WORKER

Like many women of the time, the Woolworth’s female employees were treated less favorably, and earned less than their male counterparts. They became organized, had sit-ins, and ultimately unionized. The video below looks at the Coalition of Labor Working Women and women’s employment rights through the years.

Diner Protests

On February 1, 1960, four African-American students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University started the Greensboro sit-ins at a “whites only” lunch counter at the Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina.

These sit-ins gained momentum, their non-violent direct action spread across the South. They resulted in the integration of the lunch counters and brought an end to the de facto institutionalized racism at the diners.

In 1993, an eight-foot section of the Greensboro lunch counter was moved to the Smithsonian Institution. The store, where the historic sit-ins began is now home to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. It had its grand opening on February 1, 2010, exactly 50 years after the sit-ins began.