Sit-In Demonstration Site

Kaufman-Straus Department Store stood at this site and was one of two large department stores targeted for demonstrations because of its discrimination policy. In early 1960, student members of CORE, headed by Reverend M. M. D. Perdue, protested in front of the store and were later joined by Bishop C. Eubank Tucker, members of AME Zion Church, the NAACP Youth Council, and a biracial coalition of individuals. Demonstrations or stand-ins during the lunch hour disrupted business as white patrons were forced to walk by demonstrators who were cordoned off by a chain placed by the store's private policemen. In response, the manager was forced to close the Charl-Mont Tea Room. As the demonstrations continued, three black civic organizations—Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, The Louisville Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, and the Independent Improvement Association—along with individual customers boycotted the store and cancelled their credit cards in a united show of support. In a letter to the store's general manager, Lyman T. Johnson, president of the Alpha Lambda Chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, wrote, “We as self-respecting Negro citizens wish to register our protest against this policy of yours”. The demonstrations continued throughout the year and in conjunction with the Nothing New for Easter boycott. Blacks were not finally served in the store's restaurants until the public accommodations ordinance passed in 1963.

Louisville, Kentucky · United States