Joe Hotch remembers open racial discrimination in Haines.
Born in 1930, Hotch sat in the Natives-only section of the Coliseum Theater on Main Street. As a child, he wouldn’t go to Sheldon’s Store without a friend for fear that white youths might jump him. Because of his race, he was prohibited from entering Lou’s Café, today’s Bamboo Room.
Hotch, a Chilkat elder, shared those memories at the Feb. 16 observation of Elizabeth Peratrovich Day at…
