Clubmanship

In Crawfordville, Ga. (pop. 786), the hungry wayfarer stays hungry. The town's only eating place, which used to be rather less exclusive than the Taliaferro county jail across the street, has changed its name from Liberty Cafe to Bonner's Private Club Inc. In Jackson, Miss., the Belmont Restaurant, long a favorite downtown luncheon spot for state officials, lawyers and businessmen, has become the Belmont Club Inc., boasts an electrically operated door, a membership committee--and the same old menu. Maylie's Restaurant, for 90 years a noontime hangout for New Orleans judges, lawyers and city hall officials, now styles itself Maylie's Club Restaurant, claims 3,000 members, a $5 membership fee, and a policy of never asking anyone to show his membership card--unless he happens to be a Negro.

Throughout the South, clubmanship has become the most popular way to avoid compliance with the discrimination-banning public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Even a "membership-only" hamburger joint is technically beyond reach of the law. "You've got to prove it's a sham," says John Doar, chief of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "It's more than a matter of having a Negro testify that he was refused service. You've got to have a white person testify that he was served"--without actually being, a member.

Since the law went into effect in July 1964, the Justice Department has filed 19 suits covering 75 separate establishments, including several so-called private clubs. Thirty-nine of these have eventually desegregated. Overall, 1,645 complaints of discrimination in places of public accommodation have been filed with the department. Of these, roughly half have been settled through voluntary integration by the owner. "We only sue where there is a pattern of discrimination," explains Doar. "We try to pick suits where the most purpose would be served."

As a result, discrimination in hotels and restaurants is the exception in most large Southern cities and the accepted pattern elsewhere in the South. Negro travelers are still likely to find gas stations with three rest rooms--one for white men, one for white women and a third for Negroes. Hotels and motels set aside "Negro rooms," which--somehow--never face the swimming pool. In restaurants, waitresses "accidentally" spill coffee on Negroes, overcharge them or simply ignore them. Nonetheless, Justice Department officials are pleased by the extent of voluntary compliance with the rights law. "It all depends upon how you look at it," said one. "If you measure it from the standpoint of 100% perfection, you get one picture. If you measure it from where we were to where we are, then you get a remarkable change of attitude."

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