The last two surviving members of the former Creighton DePorres Club, an interracial organization that fought segregation in Omaha, visited campus on Monday with stories of the club’s pivotal role in interracial relations in Omaha in the 1940s.
Matt Holland, author and son of DePorres Club co-leader Denny Holland, started off the visit by reading short sections of his book, “Creighton Students Ahead of Their Time.” The book tells the story of how the DePorres Club started, who its members were and what they did. Holland has been researching the club since 2002.
The DePorres Club began with Creighton student Denny Holland and the Rev. John Markoe, S.J. with the mission to confront racial segregation in Omaha. The club gathered black and white students for both social and social- justice events in the late 1940s and early ‘50s when Jim Crowe laws and segregation were still practiced.
Matt Holland illustrated over and over again how instrumental both his father, Denny Holland, and Markoe were to the life and energy of the club, as well as to each other.
“Those two together just created a synergy and kind of saved each other,” Matt Holland said of the partnership between Denny Holland and Markoe.
Matt Holland said he hoped his book provides “insights into the motives, struggles … and growth of the DePorres Club” in its work for social justice in Omaha. Matt Holland read passages ranging from Markoe’s thoughts on racial segregation to his father’s work in the club to anecdotes from other club members.
Virginia Walsh, one of the last two surviving DePorres Club members, shared what it was like being in such a controversial club at that time.
“It was such an amazing idea to think that we could do something about it … but it was scary … I was scared the whole time,” Walsh said. “You had to have this voice inside you saying, ‘I can do this.’”
Walsh explained that in the time just after the club’s creation there was a lot of energy, but not a lot of direction.
“We did not know what we were going to do or what we were supposed to do,” Walsh said. “What we did have in common was that we were in a giant game of ‘Keep Away’ from the black people.”
Agnes Stark, the other surviving member of the DePorres Club, grew up in South Omaha where she said segregation was not a problem.
“I grew up with blacks and had no problem with them,” Stark said. “I didn’t have the feeling of being privileged because we were one. Everyone worked together in the packinghouse.”
Stark’s father was a wine-maker and invited his neighbors, including blacks, into his basement to enjoy the wine and socialize. It was growing up in such an unsegregated environment that hid the problem of segregation in Omaha from Stark for a long time.
“I did not know there was a problem,” Stark said. “Blacks were not a problem to us. A lot of us didn’t know about [segregation].”
As Stark eventually learned more about the issues during her college years at Creighton, she was moved to join the DePorres Club.
The DePorres Club drew in a range of different students who focused on a variety of segregation issues in Omaha, including convincing local businesses to hire more blacks.
“We raised a certain amount of controversy because we were a mixed racial friend-group, and we tried all the wrong things at first,” Walsh said about their beginning advocacy activities.
From interracial piano recitals to protesting outside of Coca-Cola, the group became too controversial to meet on Creighton’s campus after about a year.
“We were just a motley crew that thought we ought to do something but we didn’t have any direction at first,” Walsh said. “We were such babies. We did not know what we were doing, but we just kept doing it.”
The club grew into a more effective kind of advocacy when it began approaching and
boycotting businesses in black communities that failed to hire blacks. According to Holland, students successfully gained 28 new jobs for blacks during Walsh and Stark’s time.
It was thanks to Denny Holland and Markoe that the DePorres Club accomplished so much before the Civil Rights movement officially began in 1955.
“Fr. Markoe was such a warm individual,” Stark said. “He had a commanding presence. You couldn’t help but respect what he said, and Denny [Holland] carried the ball that Fr. Markoe threw to him.”
The pair of leaders was especially remembered for walking down 24th Street persuading 45 businesses not to carry Coca-Cola products unless the Coca-Cola hired blacks.
“[Denny] Holland was the emotional center of the group,” Walsh said. “He was inspiring because he was a student, and he was poor and doing all of this. If it wasn’t for Denny, we wouldn’t have been there.”
Holland commented on how humble his father and mother, also a member of the DePorres Club, were. They rarely talked about what the club did when he and his siblings were growing up.
Always meaning to write a book about the club, Denny Holland retrospectively began saving some records of what the club did years later. He never could get a book written, though.
“Every time my dad picked up the pen to write the story, the word ‘I’ stopped him,” Holland said, “but he kept all the materials.”
Years later, it is Denny Holland’s humility and leadership, Markoe’s guidance, and the DePorres Club’s passion that Walsh, Stark and Holland continue to share.
Holland was available to sign copies of his book for sale after the event. They can be purchased in the Creighton bookstore.
Author Matt Hollands shares sections of his book about the DePorres Club and fighting segregation in Omaha.