Lucky Supermarket Shop-Ins

After the victories at the Select Rental Agency and Mel’s Drive-In restaurants, civil rights activists turned their attention to the hiring practices of Lucky grocery stores in San Francisco. Upon review of the grocery chain’s hiring and promotion practices, CORE embarked on a determined campaign to secure an anti-discrimination pact with the company. Activists employed a creative new tactic, the “shop-in,” putting pressure on the store’s daily operations and gathering substantial publicity in the city’s press. In February of 1964, San Francisco witnessed a new kind of civil rights activism that reverberated throughout the city.