Little Rock’s Thrasher Boys and Girls Club

The Thrasher Boys and Girls Club influenced my life.

The name honors William E. Thrasher, who was named director when the club opened in 1953 as the South End Boys Club. The club began in a building known as South End Elementary School, which was owned by the Little Rock School District.

The ownership and conversion to a Boys Club was a partnership between Black and white civic leaders. They secured consistent funding from the Community Chest agency to help maintain services. The initial purchase of the property was made by Mr. & Mrs. Alfred G. Kahn Sr., as reported by J. W. “Billy” Mitchell, executive director of the Little Rock Boys Club. The 1954 committee consisted of William E. Thrasher and the Little Rock Boys Club Directors, which included Sterling W. Tucker, Alvin E. Bell, Richard C. Butler Jr. (for whom the CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies was named), J. Curran Conway, Harvey C. Couch Jr., Dr. Alfred G. Kahn Jr., Arthur Phillips, Robert B. Roach, and Dabbs Sullivan.

A random meeting between Thrasher and Mitchell led to Thrasher being offered the job of director at age twenty-six. He was a graduate of Horace Mann High School and Philander Smith College who had been an elementary school teacher and principal in the Pulaski County School District (Woodson Junior High). Coincidentally, he had also been a student at South End Elementary. He was a member of the Greater Center Star Baptist Church, where he served on the Board of Deacons, and he was active in the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He served as director of the club for eighteen years before his death in 1971.

After the original building burned in December 1968, a new $400,000 facility opened in January 1971. The new William E. Thrasher Boys’ Club included an Olympic-size swimming pool, one of three in Little Rock at the time. The pool was placed on the north side of the building, with the gymnasium on the south side. The library, showers, concessions, game room, and staff space made up the middle section. The original Sims Bar-be-que was on the north side of 33^rd Street facing the club.

Hours of operation for the club were 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and activities included football, boxing, baseball, softball, basketball, elementary track meets, kite-flying contests, Easter egg hunts, Special Olympics games, punt-pass-kick activities, arts & crafts, and fishing tournaments. The swimming pool expanded activity and attendance, and the club impacted thousands of youths.

Arthur (Otto) Williams, who was a graduate of Horace Mann High School and Arkansas Baptist College who also took graduate courses at Ouachita Baptist University and Philander Smith College, was a staff member under William E. Thrasher from 1958 to 1963. He was named director in 1974.

Come to the Research Room in the CALS Roberts Library and let us help you delve into your own neighborhood history. Visit the CALS website (opens in new window) for Roberts Library visiting information (opens in new window).

Rhonda Stewart is the genealogy and local history specialist for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, housed in the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art.