The first of three weekly breakfast and lunch book club meetings was held Tuesday to discuss ‘Ahead of Their Time: The Story of Omaha’s DePorres Club,’ written by author Matt Holland.

The Rev. John Markoe, S.J., and Denny Holland founded the Omaha DePorres Club on the Creighton campus in November of 1947. Before being forced to move to a new location in October of 1948, the club took action by visiting with local pastors and priests to figure out why black students were not allowed to enroll in their schools. This resulted in the admission of black students in many of the local parochial schools. Their goal was to eliminate racial discrimination and segregation in the Omaha area by working closely with local religious and business leaders, holding club events and meetings.

Ahead of Their Time was published in July of 2014. The book highlights the story of the founding of the Omaha DePorres Club; the story explains some of their goals and accomplishments and also shows the impact of their work in the Omaha community. The purpose of the weekly book club meetings is to not only discuss the book, but also provide awareness for civil rights issues of the past and present in our own Omaha community.  

Deanna Prentice and Cat Keating attended the afternoon lunch club meeting and both provided an interesting take on what they learned from their experience at the meeting.

“Each table dissected and discussed the book in terms of what they got from it,” Prentice said. “Our table talked about the history, a little bit about the history of the (Creighton) campus and how it related to what the (civil rights) situation is today. We talked about how it has changed and how it has stayed the same.”

“I think our focus today was how is Omaha the same and different from 50 years ago and how is Creighton within Omaha’ community changed?” Keating said. “It was fascinating to go around towards the end of our session and listen to each of the tables give their insights they came up with. Some of them talked about the life of Fr. (John) Markoe and the bravery of the students who were involved in the DePorres Club.”

Prentice and Keating said that, overall, they enjoyed their experience and thought that the message behind the meeting can relate to Creighton students and young people in our community today.

“I think it was invitation to consider: Is a DePorres Club needed today, and if so, what could it do to improve relationships in the community or even the environment or climate on campus?” Prentice stated.

“I think there is so much in this story and in our current times, regarding racial issues, that needs to be addressed,” Keating commented. “Students on Creighton’s campus have a real opportunity as neighbors to both North Omaha and South Omaha to be good stewards of all the academic privilege that comes along with being a student at Creighton.”

The final two ‘Ahead of Their Time’ book club meetings will be held March 3 and March 17. The breakfast club will meet from 7:30-8:30 a.m. in Harper 3027 and the lunch club will meet in the Skutt Student Center Ballroom East from 11:30-12:45 p.m.