YMCA and Scouts
There were two Young Men’s Christian Associations (YMCA) located in Beloit. The Beloit YMCA, under Mr. Daly, enforced segregation. It was not until Mr. Mejaanes became supervisor, in 1945, that the Beloit YMCA integrated. As a result Fairbanks Morse built the Edgewater YMCA for their Black employees. The Edgewater YMCA was located next to the Edgewater Flats. Under the superintendent J. D. Stevenson, it was used as a community center for the Flats and housed single Black men.
J. D. Stevenson and Earl Rice organized Boy Scout Troop 6 in 1924 at the YMCA. The troop would attend University of Wisconsin football games, compete in Boy Scout jamborees against white troops, and often hike to Camp I-Kon-Ah-Ka-Tsi near Rockton for weekend camping. According to Ben Gordon, one of the initial troop members, “We would go camping, and we built Camp Rory at the time. We helped build that camp. We helped build the log cabin” (Ben Gordon Interview, 3/6/1976).
After Stevenson’s death in 1930, Troop 6 moved to the Burdge School where Leon Peterson and then Neil Harris became the scoutmasters. During the 1930s the Scouts would earn their way to camp by helping the camp director break camp, store equipment, and clean the grounds for the next season. During these camping trips they learned how to swim and track, and picked up other skills helpful in nature.
Around 1934, Troop 6 moved to the Second Methodist Church and Ben Gordon served as Scoutmaster until 1942. Shortly afterwards Troop 6 was taken over by the W.B. Kennedy Lodge, and after a few years, it dissolved. After Troop 6 dissolved, many Black people enrolled in Troop 10 at First Presbyterian Church. In 1983, Anthony Tardola of Troop 615 became Beloit’s first Black Eagle Scout.