Existing comment:
Terrell Place is named after
Mary Church Terrell
(1863-1954)
Teacher, Writer, Civil Rights Activist
"Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance."
-- Terrell, The Progress of Colored Women, 1898
Lost Laws:
In the 1870s, the DC Legislative Assembly passed anti-discrimination laws that required restaurants and hotels to serve "any respectable, well-behaved person," regardless of race or color. Yet these laws were ignored, and then forgotten. Decades later, when these "lost laws" were rediscovered. Terrell and others formed the Coordinating Committee for the Enforcement of the DC Anti-Discrimination Laws, to try to end segregation. At age 86, Terrell was elected the Committee's chair.
The Battle Begins:
The Committee fought segregation on two fronts First, they tried to get the courts to enforce the "lost laws." On February 28, 1950, Terrell and three others went to Thompson's Cafeteria, knowing that they would be denied service, and they were. They filed a complaint and the Thompson Restaurant Case went to court. Second, the Committee took the fight directly to restaurants that discriminated, using boycotts, picketing, and sit-ins. Thousands participated, including Terrell herself, with a cane in one hand and a protest sign in the other.
The Fight Comes to Hecht's:
Hecht's (formerly on the site of Terrell Place) was the city's biggest department store. On February 19, 1951, Hecht's ran a newspaper ad that supported world brotherhood week. Terrell saw this as the perfect opportunity to try to end discrimination at Hecht's itself, where blacks were welcome to shop, but not to eat at the lunch counter. However, when she met with the Personnel Director, he said the ad was a publicity stunt and "we no more believe in that stuff that the people who read it." After several failed efforts to negotiate, the Committee began a boycott on May 1st, handing out over 100,000 leaflets and pledge cards that encouraged people not to shop at Hecht's.
In June, Terrell and other black Committee members began weekly sit-ins at the lunch counter. They sat there all day, though they were never served, causing the lunch counter to lose thousands of dollars.
Starting on July 20th, Terrell organized picket lines outside the store, three days a week. The climax came a few days before Christmas, when picketers dressed as Santa Claus and sang holiday songs with new anti-Hecht's lyrics. Hecht's tried to break up the "Santa Claus picket line," but the police refused to take Santa into custody.
Victory:
By 1952, after 11 months of protests, Hecht's had lost many customers and millions of dollars. The store finally relented, and changed its policy on January 14th. Five days later, Terrell and others went to Hecht's for lunch, where she had a ham sandwich and banana custard pie. As she told the Washington Afro-American, "I'm happy because it's a victory for justice and equal rights for a minority group. It shows that if we fight we get our rights."
The bigger success was still to come. The Thompson Restaurant Case slowly had been working its way through the court system, eventually up to the Supreme Court.
On June 8, 1953, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that "the failure to enforce a law does not result in its repeal." Washington's "lost laws" must be enforced, officially ending segregation in restaurants across the city. The next day, the headline in the Washington Afro-American read: "Eat Anywhere!" |