Introduction

In 1965 Huntsville, Texas found itself in the center of a tumultuous civil rights showdown.  The city’s public schools were preparing for desegregation, African American activists were picketing outside the County Courthouse.  And some people were going to jail for what they believed.  In an interview in Texas Magazine, Reverend Richard Boone said that Huntsville, was a “sick town, with discrimination and segregation lurking in every corner.”[1]  The city’s public accommodations and entertainment locations remained segregated, as did the city’s principal downtown restaurant, the Café Raven.  In the summer of 1965, the Raven became the focal point of a major sit-in demonstration that resulted in the arrests of more than two dozen people.  Ultimately, the sit-in case worked its way to the Texas Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation in all public business was illegal.  In Huntsville in 1965, the town was a hotspot for civil rights movements like the Café Raven and the all-Negro Sam Houston High School demonstration, which both had a profound impact on the town in the long run.

[1] Richard Boone in Martin Dreyer, "Pride and Predjudice, Huntsville Faces Dilemma of Racial Unrest," Texas Magazine (January 30, 1966): 20.