Discrimination at the Oberlin Bowling Alleys

Discrimination at the Oberlin Bowling Alleys: Racial Discrimination through “Morality Rhetoric in 1934

by Cal Ransom

In the early months of 1934, Oberlin Bowling Alleys, recently opened, was sued for racial discrimination. Three young black townspeople, Harry Thomas, Edwin “Bill” Carlos Berry, and Warren Shaw brought a case to the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas against bowling alleys owner Perlee Wickerham for racial discrimination in violation of section 12941 and 12940 of the General Ohio Code, referred to as the civil rights statute on February 6, 1934. John D. King, a graduate student from Korea studying at the Oberlin College Theological school, brought a similar case to the criminal court against Wickerham on March 1, 1934. [1]

The cases asserted that on two separate occasions, Wickerham had thrown out the plaintiffs because of their race. On January 22, 1934, Thomas, Berry and Shaw attempted to bowl at Wickerman’s establishments, but were told to leave. After hearing about the townspeople’s case, a group of college students created a plan to test if Wickerham was discriminating based on race. Because Wickerham had set up a membership system, three white students who were not members went to bowl at the alleys on February 23, 1934. They were allowed in. Ten minutes later, King and two other non-white students went into the alleys and were thrown out by Wickerham for not being members of the club.[2]

For unknown reasons, Thomas, Berry, Shaw and their lawyer, Lawrence Webber, did not show up on their court date and the case was dismissed. In King’s case, several college students were asked to appear in court and testify but the case was ultimately ignored by the grand jury and no indictments were returned.[3]

Though both cases garnered reasonable media attention in Oberlin and the surrounding towns, the alleys remained popular during and after the litigation. Local businesses sponsored both men’s and women’s bowling leagues. The teams were mostly, if not completely, white. White Oberlin residents and students at the college chose to continue patronizing the alleys despite the allegations against Wickerham. [4]

Oberlin had precedence for turning a blind eye to implicit racism in downtown entertainment facilities. According to Foster Bows, an Oberlin resident, pool rooms would not allow African Americans to use their facilities from the turn of the 20th century until about 1920.

“They didn’t welcome you… They would say the tables were taken–really anything to keep from saying, ‘You’re not welcome here’.” [5]

Supported by the inaction taken by the courts, Wickerham was able to choose who could use the alleys through his membership requirement. He and his wife were often quoted in newspapers asserting that the alleys were “a place of high morals”. “High morals” was a loaded phrase in Oberlin where the idea of morals was tied to temperance, race and class. In the late 19th century, newspapers reported on saloons and drug stores selling alcohol concentrated in the southeast quadrant in neighborhoods that were predominantly Black. Temperance organizations gained popularity with both White Oberlinians and wealthier Black Oberlinians following the Civil War. Yet it was in the neighborhoods inhabited by poor Black Oberlinians in which the war against liquor was fought. Thus this community was associated with low morality in the eyes of many white activists. As a result, the temperance movement weakened Oberlin’s sense of cohesive identity and the fight for racial equality, separating the “respectable” white community and wealthy Black groups from impoverished Black communities. [6]

(Image: The Oberlin News-Tribune, January 26, 1934)

Membership requirements that were both vague and privately enforced also made it difficult to prove discrimination and expect government support. Although the case did not result in any significant change at the time, Berry, Thomas and Shaw continued to work in the community for racial progress. The three worked together to get Thomas a job downtown in the grocery stores in 1936. Thomas and his brother Robert went on to be founding members of Oberlin’s chapter of the NAACP, and Berry had a long career working for the Urban League in Chicago. [7]

“We were rabble-rousers… I always say that it was my generation that was the first to really speak up,” said Robert Thomas in an oral history. [8]

Wickerham moved to Painesville, Ohio and transferred the business in 1935 to the building owner Ira Porter, a successful white banker and politician in Oberlin. Porter re-opened the alleys in September 1935, but by 1937, 53 S. Main St. held a dry cleaning business. [9]

(Image: Edwin C. Berry, Urban League of Portland Records (MSS Urban League), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.)

Shaw, Thomas, Berry and King exposed white apathy through the cases brought against the Oberlin Bowling Alleys. Seeing the lack of support from the white community, Black individuals in Oberlin began using different methods, including building neighborhoods intended to be integrated and seeking employment in downtown businesses, to fight for both equality and advancement of their communities in the following decades. [10]

Written April 2023 by Cal Ransom,
Oberlin College Winter Term Intern and OHC Research Volunteer

Sources

1 “Oberlin to have New Bowling Alleys” Oberlin News-Tribune Jan 12 1934 p. 1 col. 1; Shaw vs. Wickerham (Lorain County Court of Common Pleas 1935); Berry vs. Wickerham (Lorain County Court of Common Pleas 1935); Thomas vs. Wickerham (Lorain County Court of Common Pleas 1935); State of Ohio vs. Wickerham (Lorain County Court of Common Pleas 1 March 1934); “Bring Suit Against Bowling Alley Owner” Oberlin News-Tribune Feb 6 1934 p.1 col. 1; The Chronicle Telegram [Elyria], April 9 1934 p. 1 col. 8; State of Ohio vs. P. L. Wickerham, 8636 (1934).

2 “Bowling Man Bound over to Grand Jury” The Oberlin News-Tribune March 6 1934 p. 1 col. 5.

3 “Indict Elyrian in Fatal Auto Accident” The Chronicle Telegram April 9 1934 p. 1 col. 8.

4 “Ten Bowling Teams in Merchant’s League” Oberlin News-Tribune February 20 1934 p. 1 col. 1.

5 Foster Bows, Edith Bows. Interview conducted by Betty Thomas. Oral History, Oberlin Heritage Center November 6, 1982.

6 “Oberlin to Have New Bowling Alleys.” Oberlin News-Tribune [Oberlin], 19 January 1934, p. 1; Kornblith, Gary J. and Carol Lasser, Elusive Utopia, Louisiana State University Press, 2018. Chapter 8: Temperance, Gender, and the Racialization of Respectability, p. 196-223.

7 George Jones, Betty Thomas, Bob Thomas, Allan Patterson, Oral History, OHC, 17 November 1984; Harry Thomas Obituary, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday, April 21, 1998, p. 7B;  Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois, Thursday, May 14, 1987, sec. 4, p. 15.

8 Jones et al. Oral History, OHC.

9 Wildavsky, Aaron. Leadership in a Small Town. The Bedminster Press, 1964;
Oberlin City Directory 1937-1938, Oberlin Heritage Center Archives.

10 Wildavsky, Aaron; Jones et al. Oral History, OHC.