11. The John Shillito Company of Cincinnati, Ohio
Department stores in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago, were nationally and internationally famous by the 1920s, as were some of their counterparts along the west coast of the United States. In the cities across the Midwest, smaller chains based around downtown flagship stores emerged, following the same business model as the more well-known big city stores, and in many cases, they established innovations of their own. Such was the case with a chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio, known as the John Shillito Company. Shillito’s flagship store, which operated in downtown Cincinnati beginning in the decade before the Civil War, attracted customers from a region incorporating several states, including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
During the Great Migration and especially in the aftermath of the Second World War, Shillito’s became a leader in racial equality. It was the first department store chain to openly extend credit to African-American customers, as well as one of the first to employ African-Americans in positions other than maintenance or as busboys and dishwashers in its restaurants. Sales personnel positions as well as store management jobs were opened to blacks, with equal pay scales and benefits offered. Shillito’s operated a restaurant in its downtown flagship store which was the first totally integrated dining facility in the city of Cincinnati. The chain was one of the founding companies in the formation of Federated Department Stores in the 1920s, a chain which led to the Shillito name eventually vanishing from its store’s marquees, though many remain in business branded as Macy’s.