Were We Tricked?

In 1852, Frank W. Woolworth was the original USA based chain of five and dime stores. Woolworth was much like a Walmart, because the products ranged from bedroom sheets to electronics. I have fond memories shopping with my mother at Woolworth as a little girl.

(The Greensboro Four seen above)

February 1, 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina, four African American students sat at a 'White's only' lunch counter in a Woolworth department store. The students were from North Carolina’s Agricultural and Technical College: Ezell Blair Jr., Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil, and David Richmond. 

The four men ordered food but received no service, so they remained sitting at the lunch counter until the store closed. Students began coming everyday to protest at the lunch counter -- in which the count amounted to 300 hundred protesters by the 5th day. Woolworth still wouldn't integrate; some students were even arrested and charged with trespassing. 

The arrests fueled more protests and caused a snowball effect, as students launched boycotts at segregated lunch counters across the city. 

Store revenue fell sharply and store owners were ultimately forced to give in. Six months later those same four students returned to that same lunch counter and was served food. 

These courageous acts led to the integration of many stores before the Civil Rights Act was signed into law. In 1933, an eight foot section of the lunch counter from Woolworth was moved to the Smithsonian Institution to forever mark this moment in history.

Racial tension between Black people and the Woolworth department store was even more evident, which in turn triggered a massive boycott. 

As a little girl, I remembered that the Woolworth department store suddenly disappeared and I didn't know where it went or what happened to it, all I knew was that the store in which I had become accustomed to had vanished. 

Over time I found out what happened to Woolworth, would you like to know?

Since revenue sharply declined due to poor sales as a result of the boycott, in order to get and keep the black dollar something had to be done. Woolworth decided to re-invent themselves and changed their name to Venator Group; their name was then changed to Footlocker which we all know to be a major department store today.

Woolworth decided to change its focus to athletic clothing, and even started an athletic retailer mail-order catalogue titled, East Bay. 

Altogether, there are 596 Woolworth stores worldwide and all of them are now under one corporate entity. And although the Woolworth name has been masked in America, there are plenty overseas in New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, and Mexico City doing very well in profit. 

Were we tricked?

Woolworth had gone out of business in America, due to its racist attitude and the owners knew if they continued with this name they'd lose more money. 

So now we're tricked into thinking that Footlocker is a totally different store, but it's really all the same. Same people, same store, and probably the same racist agenda.

Now that I am aware of these changes will this stop me from shopping at Footlocker? 

Without a blink of an eye the first word that comes to mind is, absolutely!

2008 LA