Before Title II: Civil Rights in Washington State
Each February our nation celebrates National African American History Month. This annual recognition traces its roots to Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Black History,” who in 1915 founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History). He subsequently organized the first Negro History Week in February of 1926 to correspond with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, President Gerald Ford expanded the traditional one week observance to a month, encouraging the nation to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” A Presidential Proclamation is issued annually declaring February as National African American History Month.
One of these accomplishments was achieved right here in Washington State. Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States, 379 U.S. 241 (1964), the case that would affirm the constitutionality of the public accommodations provisions in Title II of the act, there was Ola Browning and her attorney, James E. McIver. On March 5, 1956, Browning made a telephone appointment at Seattle’s Slenderella Salon on 6th Ave. Upon arrival, Browning was invited to take a seat in the reception area but was left to wait for two hours while other customers were served. When Browning inquired of the manager whether she would be served, she was told, “We have never served anybody but Caucasians, and I just know you won’t be happy here.” Browning left the salon without being served and, with the help of McIver, successfully sued the establishment. She was awarded $750 in damages by the Superior Court of King County (2 Race Rel. L. Rep. 618).
Slenderella appealed Judge Frank D. James’s ruling to the Washington State Supreme Court, but did not find success. In Browning v. Slenderella Systems, 54 Wn. 2d 440 (1959), the court found that Slenderella violated Browning’s civil rights, that the salon was a “place of public resort, accommodation, assemblage, or amusement” under a recently broadened public accommodation act, and that there was a civil cause of action available to Browning. The case built on longstanding principles of the state. In a Brief of Amici Curiae submitted to the court, several members of the bar wrote, “The political policy of the state on this issue is firmly established. Within five months after the admission of Washington to the union the legislature passed a civil rights act providing that all persons within the jurisdiction of the state of whatever race, color, or nationality, ‘shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment’ of ‘public accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges,’ and denouncing as criminal the denial of these rights.”
Sadly, Slenderella is less well known for its importance in reaffirming Washington citizens’ right to full enjoyment of public accommodations than it is noted for Justice Joseph Mallery’s dissenting opinion charging that the majority’s decision violated the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, “…subjecting white people to ‘involuntary servitude’ to Negroes.” A similar argument was unanimously rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in Heart of Atlanta Motel. Mallery’s opinion was used by Senator Strom Thurmond to bolster his objection to passage of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But as time has shown, Title II has been a resounding success, and Ola Browning and James McIver were but just two figures, among many, in the history that came before. Ola Browning would continue her civil rights work as one of the early black members of the Washington State Board Against Discrimination. James E. McIver was the first African American to serve as an attorney with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and would become a founding member and leading proponent of the Loren Miller Bar Association, one of several minority bar associations in Washington.
Visit the Washington State Law Library and check out our resources on African Americans, civil rights, and the law. Some selected materials:
Washington Civil Rights Deskbook
Civil Rights in American History : major historical interpretations
Civil Rights in America : 1500 to the present
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: text, analysis, legislative history
Ripples of Hope : great American civil rights speeches
Race, Racism, and American law
Dream Makers, Dream Breakers : the world of Justice Thurgood Marshall
Legislative History of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (HeinOnline) (SC)
