History Revealed: Clara Anderson

Clara Anderson: A Woman’s Fight to Save Her Job in the Face of Discrimination
With John Guthmann

History Revealed Series
Program Date: April 15, 2021
Video on YouTube

In the early 1940s, Clara Anderson worked as a bartender at a local hotel until the St. Paul City Council enacted an ordinance barring women from working behind the bar once men returned from World War II. Rather than lose her job to a man, Anderson went to court. Her battle lasted three years and involved one tenacious lawyer and nine judges along the way. Ramsey County Chief Judge John Guthmann accidentally discovered this long-forgotten case when conducting research for a judicial portrait dedication at the Ramsey County Law Library. Intrigued, he wanted to learn more about this feisty woman. Using court records, family stories and photographs, and newspaper accounts, John Guthmann brings Anderson’s story and her fight against discrimination to life.

Past History Revealed Programs
More videos of some of our past History Revealed programs are available on the RCHS YouTube channel.
Ramsey County Historical Society Youtube Channel

To purchase titles from the History Revealed series, or other books of interest, see our partner, Subtext Books at https://subtextbooks.com/