Right of Access to Public Accommodations

Report Outline
Negroes and Public Accommondations
State Statutes and Court Decisions
Reaction to Shift in Racial Climate

Negroes and Public Accommondations

Congress and the Fight on Racial Discrimination

Impelled by the deepening crisis in race relations, President Kennedy asked Congress on June 19 to enact the most far-reaching civil rights legislation since the Reconstruction Era. The most controversial of the President's several proposals would strike down one of the more painful forms of discrimination against Negroes: the “white only” policy of many hotels, restaurants and other places of public accommodation in the South and, to some extent, in other parts of the country.

Recent court decisions have removed the legal basis for racial segregation in tax-supported facilities such as public parks, golf courses, swimming pools and the like, and have undermined the authority of states and localities to require segregation in facilities operated for the general public by private concerns. The question now is whether Congress will enact legislation to forbid private owners and operators to deny service to Negroes on their own volition—and whether such a law, if enacted, will stand up to a constitutional test.

The administration worked over its civil rights proposals for a month while seeking to mobilize support from all factions of the two major political parties, from governors and mayors, from religious leaders and educators, from business and labor leaders, and from the public at large. The public accommodations measure nevertheless faces a difficult battle in Congress. Southern senators are expected to employ filibuster tactics in an attempt to block its passage. And some supporters of general principles of racial equality are certain to raise objections to legislation under which the federal government would seek to control practices of private business enterprises in relation to their customers.