PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS PROJECT

Cases involving civil rights violations in places of public accommodation (businesses open to the public) arise with some frequency, and are staffed by attorneys from the various projects of the Washington Lawyers' Committee. The Committee has successfully challenged race discrimination by hotels, motels, restaurants, retail stores, sports clubs, and taxicabs. The Committee's pioneering fight against consumer racism -- more than 35 years after the sit-ins at segregated lunch counters -- has resulted in important victories for individual victims of discrimination and changed the way companies do business. The Washington Lawyers' Committee has achieved landmark multi-million dollar settlements in race discrimination lawsuits, including those against the Denny's restaurant chain and an Avis car rental franchise.

If you live in the Washington metropolitan area and believe that you have been discriminated against in a place of public accommodation, please complete the intake questionnaire online or print the questionnaire, complete it, and mail it to: Washington Lawyers' Committee, 11 Dupont Circle NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036, Attn: Public Accommodations Project. Or, e-mail your questions to the Public Accommodations Project at pub_acc_special@washlaw.org . Please note: If the discrimination you experienced is based on disability, please direct your inquiry to the Disability Rights Project at disability@washlaw.org.

If you are a D.C.-area attorney interested in learning more about the Public Accommodations Project, or in volunteering for the Washington Lawyers' Committee, please e-mail the Project at pub_acc_special@washlaw.org or call 202-319-1000 ext. 124.

To find out whether you are eligible to participate in a pending public accommodations case, see group lawsuits and class actions.


Online Resources

Notable Public Accommodations Cases 

Bolden, et al. v. J&R Incorporated, Inc., et al. (D.D.C. 1:99CV01255, filed May 24, 1999, decided June 21, 2000)

Race discrimination in the provision of taxicab service within the District of Columbia is a severe and widespread problem that largely has been unremedied through civil rights litigation. However, the Committee achieved a significant and precedential victory on June 21, 2000, when two taxicab passengers won a substantial jury trial in a race discrimination lawsuit against a cab driver and his cab company, J&R Incorporated, doing business as Presidential Cab. Co. 

On an evening in May 1998, Joel Bolden, an African American, and Len Silvia, a Caucasian - two longtime friends, co-workers and roommates -- sought to share a taxicab ride from a restaurant in Georgetown to their apartment in upper Georgetown. The driver pulled over and stopped to pick up Mr. Silvia, but when he saw Mr. Bolden approach the cab as well, he started to drive away -- at the exact moment Mr. Silvia was attempting to get into the cab. Mr. Silvia, pulled and dragged through an intersection, eventually was able to enter the cab, as was Mr. Bolden, who chased after the cab as it was dragging his friend up Wisconsin Avenue. The driver told Mr. Silvia: "I take you, but not him." The driver further refused to stop the cab to allow Mr. Bolden to summon police assistance, and ultimately refused to take them to their home in upper Georgetown. 

The Committee, along with the D.C. law firm of Crowell & Moring, filed suit on behalf of Mr. Bolden and Mr. Silvia in May 1999. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a verdict of $120,000 in compensatory and substantial punitive damages against both the driver and the cab company, finding that the driver committed illegal race discrimination under both federal and District of Columbia law. This is the first known case in the country in which a jury has held a driver and a taxicab company liable for race discrimination in the taxicab industry.

Pugh v. Avis Rent-A-Car Systems, Inc. (E.D.N.C. 96-CV-9-F [2])

In May 1995, Linda Pugh, an African-American owner of a travel agency in Tappahannock, Virginia, reserved two mini-vans from an Avis franchise in Wilmington, North Carolina for a family vacation to Florida. When she arrived at Avis, she was rudely told that she would not be permitted to rent the mini-vans. Ms. Pugh called an Avis 1-800 number to complain and was told that Avis had received a number of complaints of racial discrimination from African-Americans about the Wilmington franchise.

In May 1996, the Committee, with the North Carolina law firm of Parker, Poe, Adams & Bernstein, and the D.C. law firm of Crowell & Moring, filed a federal lawsuit. The Committee got sworn statements from former Avis employees stating that high-level Avis executives at its reservation center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and its world headquarters in New York knew about the discrimination but took no action to terminate that franchise. In April 1998, plaintiffs reached a class action settlement with Avis and New Hanover for $5.4 million.

Dyson et al. v. Denny's Inc. (D.Md. DKC-93-1503) 

On April 1, 1993, twenty-one uniformed Secret Service officers assigned to protect President Clinton during his visit to the Naval Academy stopped for breakfast at a Denny's restaurant in Annapolis. Six African-American officers, who sat at a table together, waited nearly an hour to order while their white colleagues were served. This discrimination happened on the same day that Denny's and the Department of Justice filed a consent decree in a California federal court in which Denny's promised to end discriminatory treatment of African-American customers at its restaurants.

In May 1993, the Washington Lawyers' Committee and the D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson filed a class action lawsuit against Denny's. In 1994, Denny's and 18 named plaintiffs settled for a record $17.725 million. The Committee eventually issued 136,000 checks to African-Americans across the country in the largest class action settlement distribution ever undertaken in a public accommodations case.


Public Accommodations Online Resources  

U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Housing and Civil Enforcement Section 
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/housing/hcehome.html

FAQs
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/housing/faq.htm