Eau Claire

Basic Information

Type of Place

Independent City or Town

Metro Area

Politics c. 1860?

Don’t Know

Unions, Organized Labor?

Don’t Know

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?

Possible

Was there an ordinance?

Don't Know

Sign?

Don’t Know

Year of Greatest Interest

Still Sundown?

Surely Not

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present

	Total	White	Black	Asian	Native	Hispanic	Other	BHshld
1860
1870
1880	10119		9
1890	17415		4
1900	17577		11
1910	18310		32
1920	20906		21
1930	26287		11
1940	30745		12
1950	36058		14
1960	37987		2
1970	44619		91
1980	51509		130
1990	56856
2000
2010	65883		1211
2020

Method of Exclusion

• Unknown

Main Ethnic Group(s)

• Unknown

Group(s) Excluded

• Black

Comments

Eau Claire Bears, the minor league team, had low attendance for the first month in 1952, perhaps because the team was 17-20, after winning the previous year, perhaps because it had four black players, “their most ever.” Some fans complained. That was before Aaron, who joined in June, but by then two blacks had been sent down to Class D, Danville, IL. Black players stayed at the Eau Claire YMCA; white players stayed in private homes or hotels.
Billy Bruton and Roy White, blacks, had played on the Bears in 1950. The Toastmasters Club voted against black ballplayers. “”Eau Claire is not a suitable city for a Negro baseball player, a majority of the member of the TC decided Tuesday night,”” acc. to Eau Claire Leader, 3/30/1950. TC was business leaders. “Shortly before Bruton arrived, [Marian] Anderson had been denied a room at the Hotel Eau Claire because she was black.” But some letters to the editor took issue with the TC.
But Bruton and White “became popular with the fans.”
Aaron got along well in Eau Claire. Had friends, ate in a restaurant, Paradise Cafe.