The D.C. NAACP ‘Case Against Lansburgh’s’: 1945
An October 11, 1945 flyer targeting Lansburgh’s Department Store for a campaign to desegregate its lunch counter is launched by the Washington, D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The flyer urges the public to close their credit accounts at Lansburgh’s in order to pressure the store. The effort did not succeed in desegregating Lansburgh’s.
It would be another four years before the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws was launched in late 1949 headed by long-time rights activist Mary Church Terrell that would ultimately break the back of Jim Crow in the city.
Terrell was a founding member of the NAACP in 1909.
In 1943 a sit-in by Howard students had briefly desegregated several restaurants, but the effort was not sustained. Likewise a sit-in by 50 participants in a Civil Rights Congress demonstration in 1948 resulted in the group being served at a restaurant in Union Station but again the effort was not sustained.
An earlier 1934 series of sit-ins at the U.S. Capitol was iutlimately unsuccessful in desegregating the restaurants within the complex.
However, Terrell and two others first staged a sit-in at the Thompson’s Restaurant in February 1950. The group then conducted picket lines, boycotts, negotiations and filed court suits to end discrimination in restaurants and hotels in the early 1950s.
The District of Columbia had laws on the books from 1872 and 1873 that prohibited discrimination at restaurants and hotels, but they had not been enforced. In fact, they had been removed from the law books without being repealed. Terrell's group called them "The Lost Laws."
On February 28, 1950, 86-year-old Terrell, Rev. Arthur F. Elmes, Essie Thompson and David Scull entered the popular Thompson's Restaurant at 725 14th Street NW and sought service and were denied.
A court case ensued that took three years of twists and turns before reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Church and her group staged pickets and boycotts like the nine-month boycott and six-month picket that resulted in Hecht's Department Store desegregating their lunch counter in January 1952.
Finally in 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court, a year before Brown v. Board of Education, upheld the "Lost Laws" and legal discrimination in public accommodations was ended.
Terrell continued to test the laws by seeking service at restaurants and theaters in the city that had historically discriminated until her death in 1954, shortly after the Supreme Court issued its decisions ending legal school segregation.
For a PDF of this 8 ½ x 14, one-sided flyer, see washingtonspark.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/1945-landburg...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmJWczcL
The image is courtesy of the Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Museum, Tomlinson D. Todd, Henry P. Whitehead collection.
The D.C. NAACP ‘Case Against Lansburgh’s’: 1945
An October 11, 1945 flyer targeting Lansburgh’s Department Store for a campaign to desegregate its lunch counter is launched by the Washington, D.C. branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
The flyer urges the public to close their credit accounts at Lansburgh’s in order to pressure the store. The effort did not succeed in desegregating Lansburgh’s.
It would be another four years before the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws was launched in late 1949 headed by long-time rights activist Mary Church Terrell that would ultimately break the back of Jim Crow in the city.
Terrell was a founding member of the NAACP in 1909.
In 1943 a sit-in by Howard students had briefly desegregated several restaurants, but the effort was not sustained. Likewise a sit-in by 50 participants in a Civil Rights Congress demonstration in 1948 resulted in the group being served at a restaurant in Union Station but again the effort was not sustained.
An earlier 1934 series of sit-ins at the U.S. Capitol was iutlimately unsuccessful in desegregating the restaurants within the complex.
However, Terrell and two others first staged a sit-in at the Thompson’s Restaurant in February 1950. The group then conducted picket lines, boycotts, negotiations and filed court suits to end discrimination in restaurants and hotels in the early 1950s.
The District of Columbia had laws on the books from 1872 and 1873 that prohibited discrimination at restaurants and hotels, but they had not been enforced. In fact, they had been removed from the law books without being repealed. Terrell's group called them "The Lost Laws."
On February 28, 1950, 86-year-old Terrell, Rev. Arthur F. Elmes, Essie Thompson and David Scull entered the popular Thompson's Restaurant at 725 14th Street NW and sought service and were denied.
A court case ensued that took three years of twists and turns before reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Church and her group staged pickets and boycotts like the nine-month boycott and six-month picket that resulted in Hecht's Department Store desegregating their lunch counter in January 1952.
Finally in 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court, a year before Brown v. Board of Education, upheld the "Lost Laws" and legal discrimination in public accommodations was ended.
Terrell continued to test the laws by seeking service at restaurants and theaters in the city that had historically discriminated until her death in 1954, shortly after the Supreme Court issued its decisions ending legal school segregation.
For a PDF of this 8 ½ x 14, one-sided flyer, see washingtonspark.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/1945-landburg...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsmJWczcL
The image is courtesy of the Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Museum, Tomlinson D. Todd, Henry P. Whitehead collection.