Wurster Brothers Drug Store on Chillicothe Street, Portsmouth, Ohio

John and George Wurster first entered the pharmacy business in 1897 when they purchased Dr. Whitaker's Drug Store on the northeast corner of Court and Second Streets. By 1903, the Wurster Brothers had expanded their business with a second location at 419 Chillicothe Street. Here, as at their original location, the Wursters operated a whites-only soda fountain, which became the focus of local protests in 1904. The controversy came to a head when Wurster's refused to serve Bishop W. B. Derrick of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church on account of his skin color. The Ohio Conference of the AME Church, which was meeting in Portsmouth at the time, would adopt a strongly worded condemnation of Wurster Brothers and their operation of a whites-only soda fountain. They declared: "We resent the un-called-for, un-christian and inhuman treatment, and hurl back its odium into the faces of our traducers. .... We pray that God will hasten the time when our people, as other races, may be judged upon their individual merits, and the distinctions of condition and work may be recognized."