Timeline: 1935

Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi established co-operative African American restaurant after Boyd’s Cafe–the only campus restaurant (except for the University cafeteria) to serve African Americans–closed. The co-op restaurant lasted less than a year.

August 1: Allen A. Rivers, Sr. was hired as the only African American on the Champaign Police Department. He worked for 33 years as a policeman rising from a “beat cop” to the motorcycle cop to Sergeant before retiring.

October 12: The NAACP authorized the re-establishment of the NAACP in Champaign-Urbana at its annual meeting in Springfield, IL.  “…and it was decided in view of the discriminatory practices against colored students at the University of Illinois and in the twin university towns of Champaign and Urbana to establish a branch of the N.A.A.C.P. there which could deal with these discriminations on the ground.”