The DePorres Club was an early pioneer organization in the Civil Rights Movement in Omaha, Nebraska, whose "goals and tactics foreshadowed the efforts of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

activists throughout the nation in the 1960s." The club was an affiliate of CORE.

History

The DePorres Club was formed in 1947 by a group of African American high school students and white college students who worked with Rev. John Markoe of

Creighton University Creighton University () is a private research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1878, the university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2015 the university enrolled 8,393 graduate ...

, a Catholic

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

University in Omaha. The club’s early mission was to improve interracial relations on the Creighton campus. Their patron, Martin de Porres, a

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vian of mixed ancestry, was

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sa ...

by the

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in 1962. Within a year DePorres extended their reach, working to challenge the history of racism in Omaha. According to club member and eventual founder of the Great Plains Black History Museum Bertha Calloway, the organization deliberately targeted Reid’s Ice Cream, the Coca-Cola bottling plant at 3200 North 30th Street, Dignotti’s Doughnut Shop, Harry’s Tea Club, the Greyhound Bus station, the Hotel Fontenelle, the Paxton Hotel, and Eppley Air Field for not hiring black workers. The group met at Creighton until it became too controversial and was asked to move off campus. '' Omaha Star'' publisher and community ally Mildred Brown volunteered the newspaper's office for the club after Creighton kicked them off campus. In 1948, a group of 30 members of the DePorres Club participated in the club's first sit-in at a restaurant by the Douglas County Courthouse in

Downtown Omaha Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east ...

. When the group arrived the owner told them that white customers would stop coming into the restaurant if blacks were served; in response, the group stayed until the owner agreed to allow African American patrons. The Club also called for a general boycott against the Omaha and Council Bluffs Street Railway Company for their segregation practices and poor service to the Near North Side neighborhood four years before the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social boycott, protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United ...

. Aside from its activism, the club regularly held other activities, as well. They staged events to raise funds, had their own dances and picnics. They painted houses for poor families and stuffed acres of envelopes. In the following years the club hosted a community center called the Omaha DePorres Center to meet the needs of low-income families, and eventually started branches in

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and

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City.(n.d
Mildred Brown
''Nebraska Studies.''

References

External links

Interview with Dennis Holland
Nebraska Black Oral History Project, digitized by Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska at Omaha Libraries; original held by History Nebraska.
Interview with Bertha Calloway
Nebraska Black Oral History Project, digitized by Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska at Omaha Libraries; original held by History Nebraska.
Interview with Dorothy Eure
Nebraska Black Oral History Project, digitized by Archives and Special Collections, University of Nebraska at Omaha Libraries; original held by History Nebraska.
"A Timeline of the DePorres Club"
by Adam Fletcher Sasse for NorthOmahaHistory.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Deporres Club History of North Omaha, Nebraska Civil rights movement organizations African-American history in Omaha, Nebraska African-American Roman Catholicism Organizations based in Omaha, Nebraska

History

See also

References

External links