When Joan A. Krueger, civil rights activist, and her friend, Ernece B. Kelly, traveled to the South during the civil rights movement, they knew there would be differences in how people treated them. Both were women from the North, but Mrs. Krueger was white; Kelly was black.
The two had been on the road for hours and pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant. The restaurant manager greeted them on the entrance steps, Kelly said.
“He said `We’re closed,'” Kelly recalled.
And just as Kelly turned back to the car, her friend grabbed her arm, telling Kelly they were not closed, they did not want to serve her because she was black, Kelly said.
The two friends did not eat. Instead, they drove to the town hall and inquired about what they could do to change the licensing requirements for the restaurant.
“Yes, she was white in terms of her skin color, but she had a consciousness for injustice that was so finely tuned,” Kelly said.
Though Kelly said she is sure some people resented Mrs. Krueger’s involvement in the civil rights movement, her friend never spoke to her of such things. “There was never any overt negative response to her,” Kelly said. “She was known in the community.”
Mrs. Krueger, 65, died of respiratory failure after a long illness in her South Side home on Saturday, Aug. 7.
Mrs. Krueger grew up in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and moved to Chicago to pursue her education. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social science from the University of Chicago in 1959 and 1960.
In the late 1950s, Mrs. Krueger taught at Washington High School on the South Side, but by the early 1960s, she had left the classroom to register voters as a Freedom Summer volunteer in Greenwood, Miss.
When she returned to Chicago, she marched with the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations. Mrs. Krueger saw the organization as an opportunity to move black students from mobile classrooms, called “Willis wagons” after Chicago School Supt. Ben Willis, into predominantly white schools in Chicago.
Mrs. Krueger also worked with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his End the Slums campaign. She organized protests and participated in demonstrations.
“She was very concerned about and bothered by social and economic inequalities,” Kelly said. “And she wanted to do what she could to correct that. That’s what the group was about.”
Kelly said her friend made a financial sacrifice to work for the grassroots organization.
She added that groups like the one Mrs. Krueger participated in “sort of increased the heat of activism and inspired young people to join in the protest . . . in greater numbers than before Dr. King came to Chicago. I think it is a legacy that lives on in Chicago.”
Later, Mrs. Krueger taught anthropology part-time at Harold Washington College and was a board member of the Council for Bio-Medical Careers, an organization that works to expose minority students to careers in the medical field. She also was a board member of the National Association of Minority Medical Educators.
Mrs. Krueger is survived by her mother, Madeline; her brother, Gordon; and her sister, Nancy.
A memorial service will be held in the fall.
