Blue Boar Cafeteria

One of two Blue Boar Cafeterias stood at this site as part of a regional chain that primarily operated in the South and was known for home-style cooked fare that attracted downtown workers and shoppers with reasonable prices and good food. Demonstrations took place in front of the Blue Boar and other restaurants along Fourth Street from Broadway to Chestnut Street and at other downtown locations. The Louisville Defender reported that 332 students and adults were arrested while conducting sit-ins and squat-ins at Kupies Double Burger on Fifth Street near Muhammad Ali Boulevard, formerly Walnut Street. The Blue Boar Cafeterias became sites of escalated violence by merchant policemen and customers against protesters, and as students demonstrated in front of the restaurants, some white patrons trampled over them using knees and elbows to push through. Before the demonstrations, only 10 of 135 downtown restaurants were desegregated. After the protests, 24 more opened their doors, and the rest remained closed to African Americans until the passage of the public accommodations law in 1963. Blue Boar and other cafeteria-styled restaurants declined in the late 1960s and by the 1980s were largely absent after being eclipsed by fast food restaurants.

Louisville, Kentucky · United States