‘Mass Meeting’ on race discrimination’ in DC: 1944
A flyer announcing a “Mass Meeting” Friday, October 20, 1944 at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. is issued by The Institute on Race Relations.
The Institute, headed by Tomlinson Todd from 1941-51, was a “one-man pressure organization if there ever was one,” according to Ernest E. Johnson of the Associated Negro Press. Todd lobbied, held mass meetings, sponsored speakers and hosted a radio show on WOOK called American All in Washington, DC attempting to desegregate public accommodations like restaurants and theatres, all while holding a day job at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving.
Todd was credited by veteran civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell with uncovering Washington, D.C. so-called “lost laws” from 1872 and 1873 that prohibited discrimination in public accommodations.
The laws were dropped from the statue book in 1901, but were not repealed. They continued to be enforced up until 1912. However, this was the period in which Jim Crow was being imposed in the federal government and in other facets of life in the District of Columbia and the laws were not enforced thereafter.
Despite his discovery of these old laws, Todd didn’t put all his eggs in one basket and prevailed upon U.S. Rep. William A Rowen (D-IL) and U.S. Sen. Warren Barbour (R-NJ) to introduce bills in 1943 that would prohibit discrimination in public accommodations in the District of Columbia. He hoped that Congress would act in the District of Columbia when they weren’t prepared to act nationwide—much like Congress ended slavery and granted the right to vote to Black males in Washington, D.C. prior to do so nationwide.
The bills were bottled up in committee, so Todd was lobbying to secure enough congressional signatures for a discharge petition that would force a floor vote.
He was using the mass meetings as one tool to put pressure on Congress to act. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful.
In this flyer, Todd cites the incident of a “one-legged colored soldier of this war [WWII] who was actually refused a cup of coffee in Thompson’s Restaurant.” Thompson’s was a national chain that was desegregated in the north, but refused to serve Black clientele at its restaurants in the south, including Washington, D.C.
Mary Church Terrell took up the fight to enforce the “lost laws” in 1948, forming a Coordinating Committee for Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws (CCEDA). In early 1950, Terrell and other civil rights activists sought service at the same Thompson’s at 725 14th Street NW that refused service to the Black war veteran. The group was refused service and sued. The technicality of the law required the city to sue and Terrell persuaded the District government to do so.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1873 law and restaurants throughout the city then largely desegregated along with movie theaters. A year later the Bolling v. Sharpe US Supreme Court decision ended legal segregation of public schools. Actual desegregation remained a fight into modern times, with some gains being reversed in contemporary times.
For a PDF of this flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1944-1...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHBqjCgioV
The flyer is courtesy of Henry P. Whitehead collection, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Michael A. Watkins.
‘Mass Meeting’ on race discrimination’ in DC: 1944
A flyer announcing a “Mass Meeting” Friday, October 20, 1944 at the 15th Street Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C. is issued by The Institute on Race Relations.
The Institute, headed by Tomlinson Todd from 1941-51, was a “one-man pressure organization if there ever was one,” according to Ernest E. Johnson of the Associated Negro Press. Todd lobbied, held mass meetings, sponsored speakers and hosted a radio show on WOOK called American All in Washington, DC attempting to desegregate public accommodations like restaurants and theatres, all while holding a day job at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving.
Todd was credited by veteran civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell with uncovering Washington, D.C. so-called “lost laws” from 1872 and 1873 that prohibited discrimination in public accommodations.
The laws were dropped from the statue book in 1901, but were not repealed. They continued to be enforced up until 1912. However, this was the period in which Jim Crow was being imposed in the federal government and in other facets of life in the District of Columbia and the laws were not enforced thereafter.
Despite his discovery of these old laws, Todd didn’t put all his eggs in one basket and prevailed upon U.S. Rep. William A Rowen (D-IL) and U.S. Sen. Warren Barbour (R-NJ) to introduce bills in 1943 that would prohibit discrimination in public accommodations in the District of Columbia. He hoped that Congress would act in the District of Columbia when they weren’t prepared to act nationwide—much like Congress ended slavery and granted the right to vote to Black males in Washington, D.C. prior to do so nationwide.
The bills were bottled up in committee, so Todd was lobbying to secure enough congressional signatures for a discharge petition that would force a floor vote.
He was using the mass meetings as one tool to put pressure on Congress to act. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful.
In this flyer, Todd cites the incident of a “one-legged colored soldier of this war [WWII] who was actually refused a cup of coffee in Thompson’s Restaurant.” Thompson’s was a national chain that was desegregated in the north, but refused to serve Black clientele at its restaurants in the south, including Washington, D.C.
Mary Church Terrell took up the fight to enforce the “lost laws” in 1948, forming a Coordinating Committee for Enforcement of the D.C. Anti-Discrimination Laws (CCEDA). In early 1950, Terrell and other civil rights activists sought service at the same Thompson’s at 725 14th Street NW that refused service to the Black war veteran. The group was refused service and sued. The technicality of the law required the city to sue and Terrell persuaded the District government to do so.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1873 law and restaurants throughout the city then largely desegregated along with movie theaters. A year later the Bolling v. Sharpe US Supreme Court decision ended legal segregation of public schools. Actual desegregation remained a fight into modern times, with some gains being reversed in contemporary times.
For a PDF of this flyer, see washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1944-1...
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHBqjCgioV
The flyer is courtesy of Henry P. Whitehead collection, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Michael A. Watkins.