June 8, 1953: SCOTUS ruled that the 1872 and 1873 Washington, D.C. laws making restaurant segregation illegal were valid, ending their non-enforcement. D.C. activists led by Mary Church Terrell made this happen through determined demonstrations that set impactful precedents for the civil rights era. As historian Beverly W. Jones writes, “The D.C. boycotts, picketing, and sit-ins from 1950 to 1953 clearly prefigured the goals and tactics of the civil rights movement of the sixties… Thus, as historically important as the Montgomery and Greensboro boycotts and their leaders were, it is important to always remember their antecedents: the Washington D.C. movement and Mary Church Terrell.” Jones also importantly emphasizes the Supreme Court role in this case: “This victory suggested the leading role the Supreme Court would play during the Second Reconstruction [a.k.a. Civil Rights Movement]. Considering the bitter differences of opinion the laws evoked from judges of the lower court, the Supreme Court’s unanimity was very significant and predictive of what was to come.”
Citations: Beverly W. Jones, “Before Montgomery and Greensboro: The Desegregation Movement in the District of Columbia, 1950-1953,” Phylon 43, no. 2 (2nd Qtr., 1982): 144, 152-154, https://www.jstor.org/stable/274463; “District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., Inc., 346 U.S. 100 (1953),” Justia Law, June 8, 1953, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/346/100/; Harris & Ewing, “[Mary Church Terrell, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing front],” photograph (location unknown, c. 1920-1940), https://www.loc.gov/item/93516449/.
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