which, while encouraging local initiative and responsibility, empower the Attorney General to institute enforcement actions. We strongly recommend enactment of the proposed legislation. Respectfully submitted. Committee on Federal Legislation: Fred N. Fishman, Chairman, AUGUST 19, 1963. APPENDIX [S. 1731, 88th Cong., 1st sess.] TITLE II-INJUNCTIVE RELIEF AGAINST DISCRIMINATION IN PUBLIC ACCOMMODATIONS FINDINGS SEC. 201. (a) The American people have become increasingly mobile during the last generation, and millions of American citizens travel each year from State to State by rail, air, bus, automobile, and other means. A substantial number of such travelers are members of minority racial and religious groups. These citizens, particularly Negroes, are subjected in many places to discrimination and segregation, and they are frequently unable to obtain the goods and services available to other interstate travelers. (b) Negroes and members of other minority groups who travel interstate are frequently unable to obtain adequate lodging accommodations during their travels, with the result that they may be compelled to stay at hotels or motels of poor and inferior quality, travel great distances from their normal routes to find adequate accommodations, or make detailed arrangements for lodging far in advance of scheduled interstate travel. (c) Negroes and members of other minority groups who travel interstate are frequently unable to obtain food service at convenient places along their routes, with the result that many are dissuaded from traveling interstate, while others must travel considerable distances from their intended routes in order to obtain adequate food service. (d) Goods, services, and persons in the amusement and entertainment industries commonly move in interstate commerce, and the entire American people benefit from the increased cultural and recreational opportunities afforded thereby. Practices of audience discrimination and segregation artificially restrict the number of persons to whom the interstate amusement and entertainment industries may offer their goods and services. The burdens imposed on interstate commerce by such practices and the obstructions to the free flow of commerce which result therefrom are serious and substantial. (e) Retail establishments in all States of the Union purchase a wide variety and a large volume of goods from business concerns located in other States and in foreign nations. Discriminatory practices in such establishments, which in some instances have led to the withholding of patronage by those affected by such practices, inhibit and restrict the normal distribution of goods in the interstate market. (f) Fraternal, religious, scientific, and other organizations engaged in interstate operations are frequently dissuaded from holding conventions in cities which they would otherwise select because the public facilities in such cities are either not open to all members of racial or religious minority groups or are available only on a segregated basis. (g) Busines organizations are frequently hampered in obtaining the services of skilled workers and persons in the professions who are likely to encounter discrimination based on race, creed, color, or national origin in restaurants, retail stores, and places of amusement in the area where their services are needed. Business organizations which seek to avoid subjecting their employees to such discrimination and to avoid the strife resulting therefrom are restricted in the choice of location for their offices and plants. Such discrimination thus reduces the mobility of the national labor force and prevents the most effective alloca tion of national resources, including the interstate movement of industries, particularly in some of the areas of the Nation most in need of industrial and commercial expansion and development. (h) The discriminatory practices described above are in all cases encouraged, fostered, or tolerated in some degree by the governmental authorities of the States in which they occur, which license or protect the businesses involved by means of laws and ordinances and the activities of their executive and judicial officers. Such discriminatory practices, particularly when their cumulative effect throughout the Nation is considered, take on the character of action by the States and therefore fall within the ambit of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to the Constitution of the United States. (i) The burdens on and obstructions to commerce which are described above can best be removed by invoking the powers of Congress under the 14th amendment and the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States to prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin in certain public establishments. RIGHT TO NONDISCRIMINATION IN PLACES OF PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION SEC. 202. (a) All persons shall be entitled, without discrimination or segregation on account of race, color, religion, or national origin, to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of the following public establishments: (1) any hotel, motel, or other public place engaged in furnishing lodging to transient guests, including guests from other States or traveling in interstate commerce; (2) any motion picture house, theater, sports arena, stadium, exhibition hall, or other public place of amusement or entertainment which customarily presents motion pictures, performing groups, athletic teams, exhibitions, or other sources of entertainment which move in interstate commerce; and (3) any retail shop, department store, market, drugstore, gasoline station, or other public place which keeps goods for sale, any restaurant, lunchroom, lunch counter, soda fountain, or other public place engaged in selling food for consumption on the premises, and any other establishment where goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations are held out to the public for sale, use, rent, or hire, if— (i) the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations offered by any such place or establishment are provided to a substantial degree to interstate travelers, (ii) a substantial portion of any goods held out to the public by any such place or establishment for sale, use, rent, or hire has moved in interstate commerce, (iii) the activities or operations of such place or establishment otherwise substantially affect interstate travel or the interstate movement of goods in commerce, or (iv) such place or establishment is an integral part of an establishment included under this subsection. For the purpose of this subsection, the term "integral part" means physically located on the premises occupied by an establishment, or located contiguous to such premises and owned, operated, or controlled, directly or indirectly, by or for the benefit of, or leased from the persons or business entities which own, operate or control an establishment. (b) The provisions of this title shall not apply to a bona fide private club or other establishment not open to the public, except to the extent that the facilities of such establishment are made available to the customers or patrons of an establishment within the scope of subsection (a). PROHIBITION AGAINST DENIAL OF OR INTERFERENCE WITH THE RIGHT TO SEC. 203. No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall (a) withhold, deny, or attempt to withhold or deny, or deprive or attempt to deprive, any person of any right or privilege secured by section 202, or (b) interfere or attempt to interfere with any right or privilege secured by section 202, or (c) intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person with a purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by section 202, or (d) punish or attempt to punish any person for exercising or attempting to exercise any right or privilege secured by section 202, or (e) incite or aid or abet any person to do any of the foregoing. CIVIL ACTION FOR PREVENTIVE RELIEF SEC. 204. (a) Whenever any person has engaged or there are reasonable grounds to believe that any person is about to engage in any act or practice prohibited by section 203, a civil action for preventive relief, including an application for a permanent or temporary injunction, restraining order, or other order, may be instituted (1) by the person aggrieved, or (2) by the Attorney General for or in the name of the United States if he certifies that he has received a written complaint from the person aggrieved and that in his judgment (i) the person aggrieved is unable to initiate and maintain appropriate legal proceedings and (ii) the purposes of this title will be materially furthered by the filing of an action. (b) In any action commenced pursuant to this title by the person aggrieved, he shall if he prevails be allowed a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs. (c) A person shall be deemed unable to initiate and maintain appropriate legal proceedings within the meaning of subsection (a) of this section when such person is unable, either directly or through other interested persons or organizations, to bear the expense of the litigation or to obtain effective legal representation; or when there is reason to believe that the institution of such litigation by him would jeopardize the employment or economic standing of, or might result in injury or economic damage to, such person, his family, or his property. (d) In case of any complaint received by the Attorney General alleging a violation of section 203 in any jurisdiction where State or local laws or regulations appear to him to forbid the act or practice involved, the Attorney General shall notify the appropriate State and local officials and, upon request, afford them a reasonable time to act under such State or local laws or regulations before he institutes an action. In the case of any other complaint alleging a violation of section 203, the Attorney General shall, before instituting an action, refer the matter to the Community Relations Service established by title IV of this Act, which shall endeavor to secure compliance by voluntary procedures. No action shall be instituted by the Attorney General less than thirty days after such referral unless the Community Relations Service notifies him that its efforts have been unsuccessful. Compliance with the foregoing provisions of this subsection shall not be required if the Attorney General shall file with the court a certificate that the delay consequent upon compliance with such provisions in the particular case would adversely affect the interests of the United States, or that, in the particular case, compliance with such provisions would be fruitless. JURISDICTION SEC. 205. (a) The district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction of proceedings instituted pursuant to this title and shall exercise the same without regard to whether the aggrieved party shall have exhausted any administrative or other remedies that may be provided by law. (b) This title shall not preclude any individual or any State or local agency from pursuing any remedy that may be available under any Federal or State law, including any State statute or ordinance requiring nondiscrimination in public establishments or accommodations. Hon. JOHN O. PASTORE, AMERICAN VEGETARIAN PARTY, Chairman on the Committee of Civil Rights Legislation Hearings, MY DEAR SENATOR PASTORE: I am availing myself of your invitation to submit the views of the American Vegetarian Party in the matter of this legislation bearing on the constitutional rights of 10 percent of our American citizens who have been denied their privileges accorded to their white fellow-citizens for so many decades that it will be a difficult matter no matter what legislation is passed to equate their sufferings and the indignities that have been imposed upon them with the law as finally enacted. Nevertheless we all realize that our country must take a radical step and virtually a fundamental "declaration of independence" attitude which will demonstrate to the world at large especially the emerging nations of Africa that we possess the civic and moral stamina to make up for the devastating delinquencies which certain sectors of our Nation have persisted in exhibiting their inhuman phobias and prejudices and even the so-called liberal northern sector are also guilty of an attitude toward their Negro fellow-citizens which is not to their credit when assayed from the standpoint of true Americanism and Jeffersonian humanitarianism that is consonant with our Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments, the Christian religion and other vaunted principles which the "white" race in its varied echelons cling to and manifest in the abstract but which they have failed to live up to in the actual. Our position in the matter is set forth herewith without qualification-and further we feel that a special fund should be arranged for as part of the final legislation which can be construed properly as retribution for the delinquencies and deficiencies of our Government and certain elements of its population; this fund to be employed to aid our Negro citizens to develop those skills and qualities which would enable them to compete on an equal basis with their "white" fellow citizens who have had the advantages denied them for so many decades. Then and only then can it be said that we have basically rectified a situation which has plagued most of us in the depths of our conscience and which have made of our boasted claims a de-mock-cracy. I know from my intimate contacts with many Negro fellow-beings that they possess the initiative and qualities which are lacking in many of our favored citizens. I know that there resides in this vast body of citizens an untapped reservoir of great qualities that can contribute immeasurably to the progress of our country if given the opportunity and aid which they well deserve to demonstrate and develop these potentials. Therefore, it will be to the everlasting shame of our legislators if they will indulge in quibbling debates when discussing this great and inescapable moral responsibility which all of us must accept and discharge on the highest level of social and civic ethicality. Sincerely yours, SYMON GOULD. DECLARATION OF CIVIL RIGHTS PLATFORM OF THE AMERICAN VEGETARIAN PARTY These segregation and discriminatory practices when forced upon our Negro fellow-citizens, especially the young, have the inevitable result of planting within them seeds of aversion, repugnance, and hatred in these immature minds which later must develop and flourish into a state of abhorrence bordering on reactions which sooner or later must and will find their vent and expression in acts of violence bordering on revolution. We are now faced with this stage where the constant escalation of continued acts and decrees denying 20 million of our fellow Americans the rights and privileges which all Americans should possess and enjoy as a matter of course is compelling large groups of these outraged Americans to consider courses of action which may pull the pillars which support our democratic temple from their foundation and bring down upon guilty and innocent alike the dire results of these conditions which have been permitted to ferment and generate to the explosive stage. Nine years ago, the Supreme Court, by a unanimous decision ruled that segregation should cease in school and college. These nine members of the highest court in the land by virtue of their oath of office, inspired by truth, justice, and honesty of opinion based on legality of reasoning, arrived at this ultimate judgment after long deliberations as their decision indicated. They may have been inspired by the dictum of Edmund Burke who envisioned a nation as a partnership "between those who are dead, those who are living, and those who are to be born." It is in this continuity of existence of which our Negro citizens are an integral part that our judicial savants have embraced this vital segment of our social system and decreed that these segregatory conditions must be exculpated like a cancer that has too long been permitted to exist and proliferate in various strata of our society. They realize as do all forward-looking Americans and officials of our Government that we cannot present ourselves as avowed exemplars of democracy to the rest of the world and especially to the emerging nations of Africa whence our Negro citizens originated, fulfilling the principle of "free and equal" unless we eliminate this false aspect of our democratic institution and deracinate its existance no matter where it may exist and in any degree. In particular the southern segregationists must be served with an unqualified notice that our country will not permit a small segment of its domain to be 21-544-64-pt. 33 dominated or dictated to especially when it goes counter to the expressed judicial and executive and legislative determination which realizes that the whole fabric of our social system may be rent asunder by revolution of this state of affairs is not rapidly and determinedly altered and amended so that we will welcome all Negro citizens no matter where they live into the American family as fullfledged and fully-pledged Americans without qualification or compromising conditions, in an unvenomed atmosphere which recognizes, at long last, that the United States cannot exist in its present divisive state where 20 million of its citizens are not accorded full and untrammeled privileges. Therefore, the American Vegetarian Party in consonance with its credo of all-embracing humanitarianism, appeals to all Americans to cast out their myopic, intransigent, hypocritical, dishonest concepts of this overwhelmingly insistent problem, abetted and promoted in certain sections especially by shortsighted, self-seeking political leaders catering to hidebound prejudices of a minority, and accept the historical and humane development which has been germinated for over 100 years and which will no longer brook any delay and accept our Negro citizens on a basis of equality in all respects and permit them to develop in accordance with their personal abilities and qualities, unhindered in their quest for educational and economic opportunities enjoyed by all other Americans according to their status, to the end that their contribution for the further growth and progress in the United States may receive the full and unhindered and united potential which has lain dormant and depressed for such a long time through these unnatural restrictions, but which has been demonstrated time and again that where an individual is given the opportunity for development of his or her inherent qualifications and abilities that they can fulfill all the necessary demands of their intellectual and physical potentials for the general well-being of their community, their State, and the country as a whole. The American Vegetarian Party hereby endorses all forms of protest and demonstrations on the part of our Negro citizens until these evil conditions have been eliminated from our way of life. Especially does it endorse the passive nonviolent methods initiated by Mahatma Gandhi who subscribed to the vegetarian ethos of meeting and overcoming these circumstances which circumscribe and limit the full expression of humanistic tendencies in our present day so-called civilization. The American Vegetarian Party in furtherance of its principled platform on behalf of promoting the best influences for and among all the peoples of all the nations of the world calls upon all departments of our Federal, State, and city governments charged with the moral and civic responsibility of instituting and promoting the well-being of all its citizens to put into effective functioning all necessary measures which will justifiably allay the discontents and dissatisfactions of these conditions which can only continue to breed dissensions and hatreds that must inevitably culminate in eruptions that may leave ineradicable scars on our social system thereby also affecting our efforts in the world areas to bring about those salutary phases which may hasten a better status of peaceful relationship between the United States and other nations, which much-to-be-desired aspect of international life is now being bindered in its realization and the efforts of our well-meaning Secretary of State in that direction is enormously impeded when we and he have to face the criticisms hurled at us by emerging independent countries who had expected to model their constitutional and legislative programs on our forms, but which they note are far from being put into actual and viable functioning by the obstructionist tactics of Governors, mayors, sheriffs, and other functionaries who are sworn to uphold the law of the land based on our hallowed constitutional and judicial pronouncements, which they persist in violating, arbitrarily or through specious divagatory tactics. In pursuit of the higher morality which in the final analysis must be resorted to for the ultimate solution of our racial difficulties, the Vegetarian credo offers the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Shelley, Shaw, Gandhi, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Tolstoi, Thoreau, and others who in their enunciations have predicated their preachments on those simple virtues of brotherhood which enfolds and embraces all mankind who are members of one family who should live in amity with each other and in accord with their natural environment. American Vetetarian Party, 353 West 48th Street, New York City, 36. We would appreciate hearing from all those interested in furthering the cause of the Vegetarian Party in their locality, not primarily from the political aspect which is secondary, but for the promulgation of vegetarianism in its ethical and dietetical significance and procedures. |