“Trade With Your Friends” - Tuskegee, AL
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 32° 25.424 W 085° 41.477
16S E 623047 N 3588159
Marker about the disenfranchisement of the African-American voters in Tuskegee due to a state senator changing the city election districts and the resulting boycott of white businesses. Located on Westside St next to the city square.
Waymark Code: WM11CTA
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 09/29/2019
Views: 3
Marker text:
In 1957, local government officials in Tuskegee, Alabama sought to gerrymander the city's limits in an attempt to diminish the number of black votes in upcoming elections. Alabama state senator Sam Engelhardt sponsored Act 140, which transformed Tuskegee's boundaries into a twenty- eight-sided shape. This action disenfranchised the majority of the city's black voters in city elections. On June 25, over 3,000 black citizens met at Butler Chapel AME Zion Church in support of the Tuskegee Civic Association (TCA) and its proposed boycott of white owned businesses. Termed "trade with your friends," the boycott continued for four years until the United States Supreme Court ruled that the State of Alabama had violated the 15th Amendment (Gomillion v. Lightfoot, 364 U.S. 339 (1960)). The city's boundaries were then returned to their original positions in early 1961. The boycott proved economically devastating for white owned businesses that preferred to go out of business rather than give blacks the right to vote.
Marker Name: “Trade With Your Friends” The Tuskegee Boycott
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Erected by the City Of Tuskegee, Tuskegee University, Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.
Part of the Tuskegee Civil Rights and Historic Trail.
Date Dedicated / Placed: 2019
Marker Number: 9
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Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alabama history please include that in your log.