Southside Community Center

The Southside Community Center was originally founded in the 1920s as the Serv-Us League by a group of community-minded black women. In the late 1930s federal Works Progress Administration funds supported the construction of the current Southside building on Plain Street in Ithaca, and its establishment as a full-service community center for the local black population. It sponsored job training, nutritional and health clinics, and recreational activities for kids and adults, including robust sports programming and instruction. High School students who participated in training programs at Southside were among the first African Americans to break the color barrier in professional Ithaca. One of the many sports programs that were historically run at the Southside Community Center that is represented in The History Center's photographic collection was boxing classes and instruction.