Travelers, Strangers, and Jim Crow: Law, Public Accommodations, and Civil Rights in America

Abstract

Public accommodations—hotels, trains, restaurants, steamboats, theaters, buses, motels, and the like—were for more than a century located at the epicenter of legal and political struggles for racial equality. From the age of Reconstruction to the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century, civil rights in public places stood alongside voting rights, school integration, and equal opportunity in employment and housing as conditions that black people and their allies claimed as necessary attributes of a just society. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the Supreme Court rulings in theCivil Rights Casesand especially inPlessy v. Fergusonwere critical episodes in the career of Jim Crow in the nineteenth century, followed in the twentieth by the Montgomery bus boycott, the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Where Is “the South”? Assessing the Meaning of Geography in Politics

“…There were several other instances of racial segregation in Delaware. For example, in 1875, the state common-law of innkeepers and common carriers was modified so that it “could not be used by black people to secure equal treatment” (Sandoval-Strausz, 2005, p. 76). In 1953, owners of inns, restaurants, and similar establishments in the state were allowed to “refuse service to people whose presence they thought would be offensive to other customers and might otherwise threaten their business” (Sandoval-Strausz, 2005, p. 83).…”

“…For example, in 1875, the state common-law of innkeepers and common carriers was modified so that it “could not be used by black people to secure equal treatment” (Sandoval-Strausz, 2005, p. 76). In 1953, owners of inns, restaurants, and similar establishments in the state were allowed to “refuse service to people whose presence they thought would be offensive to other customers and might otherwise threaten their business” (Sandoval-Strausz, 2005, p. 83). In addition, individuals in Delaware were required to pass a literacy test to qualify to vote, faced segregated hospitals, and were not permitted to marry freely until the state’s miscegenation law was overturned in 1967 (Woodward, 1974).…”

Civil Rights Act of 1964

“…Additionally, the Act mandates that all people on the US land have equal access to public facilities and places of public accommodation, including hospitals, clinics, schools, and courthouses, among others. Since 1964, this pivotal Act has served as the legal basis for several other equal opportunity and employment discrimination laws (Sandoval-Strausz 2005). Lawmakers have used the Act's provisions to create protections for the equitable provision of healthcare services as well as protections for workers with disabilities.…”