Faith-based and community leaders from across Chicago urged the public to not buy from major retailers and companies on Friday as part of nationwide ‘Blackout Friday’ protest. The movement is a 24-hour economic blackout in which consumers are not supposed to buy from corporations, avoid all nonessential purchases and if necessary, only shop at local businesses.
“The time for silence is over,” the Rev. Ira Acree with the Greater St. John Bible Church said. “We refuse to stand by while corporate greed devours our communities, while diversity and inclusion efforts are dismantled and justice is trampled under our foot.”
The nationwide protest is the brainchild of John Schwarz, a meditation teacher who lives near the Chicago area and founder of The People’s Union USA. The boycott is an act of “economic resistance” to protest what the group’s founder sees as the influence of billionaires, big corporations and both major political parties on the lives of working Americans.
The movement also comes as the Trump administration and major corporations roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Shortly after taking office, Trump signed executive orders demanding the end of DEI programs in the federal government and other industries. Since then, companies such as Walmart, Google and McDonald’s have cut either some or all of their DEI commitments and policies.
For faith-based and civic leaders, the economic protest is an opportunity to stand up to not only attacks on DEI, but also toward the Trump administration’s mass firing of federal workers, shuttering of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among other actions.
“Just in the last 30 days, we’ve seen a fierce attack launched on our civil rights and on our ability to develop equal employment opportunity,” said Yusef Jackson, son of civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Jackson went on to describe Trump as someone who is “part of those who are responsible for, on one level, trying to topple our government.”
From the firing of U.S. Gen. Charles Q. Brown to the support Trump has garnered among Christian supremacists, the actions of the Trump administration have been felt deeply for faith-based and civic leaders.
“He’s been given power in large part by our faith community, and that’s why, as a faith community, we must get together and respond,” Jackson said.
For some of those religious leaders, who participated in protests during the Civil Rights Movement, participation in Friday’s protests is a callback to some of the boycotts of that era.
“We must participate in this blackout,” said Michael Eaddy, pastor of the People’s Church of the Harvest Church of God in Christ. “In 1961, ’62, that was their time. But in 2025, it is our time.”
The protest is also supposed to be one of a number of protests that will take place in the coming months, according to The People’s Union USA. Other protests include more targeted boycotts of Amazon (March 7-14), Nestle (March 21-28), Walmart (April 7-14) followed by a second broader economic blackout on April 18.
Some retailers may feel a slight pinch from Friday’s broad “blackout,” which is taking place in a tough economic environment, experts said. Renewed inflation worries and Trump’s threat of tariffs on imported goods already have had an effect on consumer sentiment.
Anna Tuchman, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said she thinks the economic blackout will likely make a dent in daily retail sales but won’t be sustainable.
“I think this is an opportunity for consumers to show that they have a voice on a single day,” she said. ”I think it’s unlikely that we would see long-run sustained decreases in economic activity supported by this boycott.”
Regardless of the outcome, Chicago leaders still urged the public to participate in the 24-hour blackout. For those who are undecided about participating, James Moody, presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago, said that not participating is not an option.
“Why go inside our houses, close our doors, turn off our telephones, turn off our televisions and act as though what is happening is not,” Moody said. “Why sit here and die when we have been called to mobilize on tomorrow not to buy.”
Acree expressed a similar sentiment.
“History has proven that when the faith community moves with courage, change is inevitable,” Acree said. “The marching orders are very clear. … Let’s shut it down.”
The Associated Press and Chicago Tribune’s Talia Soglin contributed.