As the 1960s civil rights movement leveled barriers in Houston, earning blacks seats at the Mading's Drug Store lunch counter and rooms at the Lamar Hotel, the South Central YMCA stood as a base of activity.
The community had few resources, so the YMCA served as a kitchen that fed activists who were not served at restaurant sit-ins, as a lodge for visiting civil rights leaders denied rooms at local hotels, and as a meeting place for the movement's student activists.
"The South Central YMCA has a proud history with the civil rights movement," said Quentin Mease, a YMCA director from 1948 to 1976. "When I came here, there were three branches for white members and the so-called colored building was just three rooms. We came a long way."
Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law's graduating class, which studied Houston's process of desegregation, commemorated the YMCA's desegregation work Tuesday as part of its graduation ceremonies.
"It was a peaceful integration orchestrated by TSU students and the YMCA," said JoAnn Pearce, a graduating senior who presented a plaque to Mease. "We wanted to remind people of the history and of the type of change they made."
When Mease came to Houston in 1948, the YMCA open to blacks provided few services. Having grown up with the YMCA -- his father was a director in Des Moines, Iowa -- Mease set out to build a new facility.
"I had offers to work in Los Angeles, Louisville, Chicago -- but I came to Houston because it was the largest city without a YMCA equipped for service," Mease said.
It took seven years, but in 1955 Mease opened South Central at 3531 Wheeler near TSU. Soon it became a gathering place for TSU students, serving as a meeting place for organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"Things were still very divided here with segregation, and TSU didn't have much in the way of facilities, so they began to gather here," Mease said. "There were no multipurpose centers in Houston for our people, so this became the center for a lot of activity."
When the sit-in movement began in North Carolina, Mease encouraged TSU students to emulate it. Within 24 hours, a group of students -- including Eldrewey Stearns, who emerged as a leader -- formed the Progressive Youth Association to stage sit-ins.
Houston's path to integration was relatively peaceful, with little violence and few arrests.
"Houston was unique because it has had a silent revolution but it was no less successful," said John Brittain, the law school's dean. "The leaders who helped desegregation were all based right here, and TSU and the YMCA were part of the vanguard."
With the strong activist community as leverage, local and national leaders were able to negotiate with local business owners and arrange the opening of doors to theaters, hotels and restaurants.
"The movement threatened to disrupt the first NASA parade," Brittain said. "When leaders of Houston learned that the movement would use an event like that, they began to listen."
The YMCA began to buy theater tickets and book hotel rooms around the city to limit discrimination as blacks first crossed those race lines.
"We bought $200 worth of tickets so they would not have any resistance at the box office," Mease said. "If they were refused a seat at a restaurant, they were to contact us. We wanted to keep things nonviolent."
