Edholm-Sherman Laundry Boycott

The DePorres Club's boycott efforts started with Edholm-Sherman Laundry, a local business that hired Black employees to wash clothing but refused to employ them in the office or as delivery drivers. The Club spoke with Thora Edholm, the wife of the co-founder of the laundry, and she defended the company's hiring policy. The DePorres Club subsequently began its first boycott. Pictured below is Denny Holland’s letter to Edholm-Sherman Laundry, formally notifying them of the boycott’s commencement.

In July 1950, the Club began circulating handbills about the boycott. They justified the moral and ethical principles of the boycott in editorials in the DePorres Club Newsletters. Business at the Edholm-Sherman Laundry began to drop considerably due to the boycotts. On top of that, Earl Sherman, the last living co-founder of the laundromat, died on July 21, 1950. The business was sold to the nearby Emerson-Saratoga Laundry in January 1951. Emerson-Saratoga did not want to face similar boycotts, so they quickly negotiated with the Omaha Urban League to hire a Black worker. At a meeting on February 19, 1951, the DePorres Club celebrated the hiring of a Black part-time office worker at Emerson-Saratoga Laundry. Although directed toward a smaller business within the larger North Omaha business community, the DePorres Club's first boycott was a success, laying the foundation for their future efforts. 

For more information, see Holland (2014), Chapter 14.