[1] Medgar Evers, the first and leading field officer of the Jackson, Mississippi branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, directed a boycott against local stores to promote desegregation and civil rights spanning from early December of 1962 to several months later.
He called for a “massive civil disobedience campaign” to encourage Americans, no matter their color, to use their economic power to protest the violence and local terrorism against Black people across the nation.
In the city of Greenville, North Carolina, the local Black community, more than a third of their population, held what was known as the “Christmas Sacrifice,” a demonstration inspired by its preceding events.
A lack of consensus between the Interracial Committee and the Progressive Citizens Council caused the boycott to be amended into a blackout of Christmas tree lights.
According to the North Carolina Mayor's Co-operating Committee, “The blackout was very successful…the experience gave the Negro a sense of unity that he has generally lacked.