Leo Phillip LaMar was a boxer. But that’s not how he earned his fame—or at least it wasn’t the only way. In 1933, LaMar took over the Ozark Club in Great Falls, Montana. The Ozark and other “colored” social clubs (as they were then called) on the south side of the city “provided entertainment and, in some cases rooms, and were centers for [B]lack nightlife,” writes historian Ken Robison. Under LaMar’s leadership, the Ozark became one of the city’s most successful clubs. Later, it would break the rigid color lines enforced in most social venues.
After getting a job as a Pullman porter in 1920, LaMar found himself stepping off a train in Great Falls. The city was in the midst of a boom, and as Robison writes, it “had nearly doubled in population over the previous decade to twenty-four thousand.” There were three hydroelectric plants, nearby coal deposits, fields rich with oil and gas, and both copper and zinc refineries. But as in much of the US at this time, the opportunities created by mining and industrialization weren’t available to everyone.
Though Great Falls was hopping, its Black residents couldn’t fully enjoy it.
“Unofficial though pervasive segregation and discrimination placed many constraints on African Americans,” Robison writes.
Black residents were barred from most restaurants in the city, except for the Black-owned ones on the lower Southside. And the high-paying jobs from all of those booming industries were off-limits, as Black workers weren’t allowed to join unions.
LaMar fared better than most in town because he had his railroad job and his quick hands, the latter being really useful as Montana had only recently legalized boxing. During 1920–21, he went undefeated in the ring. But no one can box forever. LaMar married Garneil Winburn, who was part of a prominent Black family in town. Winburn and her family were active in the local African Methodist Episcopal church, a hub of the city’s Black community. And after the couple had four children, LaMar was ready for his next act.
The Ozark Club had been a part of the community since 1909, and LaMar and other Black boxers used the space to train. At the time, only Black members were permitted membership, but white patrons would occasionally come as members’ guests.