Claussen Bakery

The Claussen Bakery is one of the most important historical sites in Greenville, especially for the African-American community. During the 1960s Civil Right Movement, the bakery heavily favored white workers and the African-American workers, including my Dad, were constantly passed over for promotions and paid less than white people.

A close friend and fellow employee at the bakery, Roy Finch, assisted in starting the strikes and contacted Civil Rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson for support. Eventually, Rev. Jackson became involved with our movement and contacted our Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

MLK Jr. offered his full support and travelled all the way to Greenville in April of 1967 to speak at the old Greenville Memorial Auditorium to 3,500 African-American Greenville residents including Justice Horace Butler. In 2017, his son Justice Horace Butler Jr. unveiled the historical marker at Claussen Bakery and said that the strike taught our community members to fight--a lesson many in the African-American community said is still needed today.