Sit-In Demonstration Site

Sit-In Demonstration Site. Kaufman-Straus. , Kaufman-Straus Department Store was located at this site. Kaufman's was one of two large department stores targeted for demonstrations due to its discrimination policy. In early 1960 student members of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), 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, 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, in a united show of support, 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 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. It was not until the public accommodations ordinance passed in 1963 that blacks were finally served in the store's restaurants., “We shall overcome, We shall overcome, We shall overcome some day”, Dedicated to the memory of Dr. J. Blaine Hudson (September 8,1949 -January 6, 2013)