Saturday, August 2, 2014

On this Date in Minnesota History: August 2

August 2, 1963 – “A 27-year-old St. Paul Negro who served with the Peace Corps [in Ghana] was arrested [in Gonzales, La., where he was visiting relatives] after he refused to leave a segregated café. William D. Ware was charged with disturbing the peace after the café owner complained to police that Ware refused to leave. 

‘This man was sitting down inside the restaurant and wouldn’t leave when he was asked to do so, so we arrested him,’ said the Gonzales police chief.

Ware, according to his landlord, is a former mathematics teacher at Hill High School, Maplewood, and was planning to attend classes at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn., where he received his undergraduate degree.”

Ware was scheduled to appear before Municipal Court Judge Dudley Buyas on August 31. Buyas is also mayor of Gonzales.

Minneapolis Morning Tribune; “St. Paul Negro Arrested in Louisiana Café”; August 3, 1963; p. 26.


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