Hiring equality negotiations with the Bon Marche, October 9, 1963

Seattle's CORE chapter began a struggle against employment discrimination almost from its inception in 1961. CORE collected extensive documentation on hiring practices and discrimination, then attempted to use the information to negotiate with business management to bring about changes. When this failed, or moved slower than CORE thought was reasonable, they changed tactics to pickets, boycotts, and direct action techniques, culminating in the 1964 DEEDS campaign. Here is a letter between CORE and the Bon Marche department store, one example of the extensive negotiations that went on. [Digitization of documents courtesy of the Special Collections Library, University of Washington (CORE, Seattle Chapter Records, 1961-1970, Manuscript Collection 1563). Copyright (c) reserved.]

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