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Amazing Facts About Foundational Black Americans
June 8, 1953 — Washington, D.C.
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Did you know the U.S. Supreme Court case that ended legal segregation in Washington, D.C. restaurants was won in 1953—by a woman who was 89 years old and had been fighting Jim Crow for over 60 years?
Mary Church Terrell was born in 1863, the daughter of formerly enslaved people. She became a founding member of the NAACP, the first president of the National Association of Colored Women, and the first Black woman on a U.S. school board.
In 1950, at 86, she led a coalition that staged sit-ins at segregated Washington, D.C. restaurants. When she was refused service at Thompson's Restaurant, civil-rights researchers resurrected two forgotten 1870s D.C. "lost laws" that criminalized race-based refusal of service, and the city sued.
A lower court ruled against the city; the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed 5–4 in January 1953. The case reached the Supreme Court.
On June 8, 1953, in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co., the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the old anti-discrimination laws remained valid—ending legal segregation in D.C. public accommodations a full year before Brown v. Board of Education.
Mary Church Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, the daughter of formerly enslaved people. She became the first president of the National Association of Colored Women (1896), a charter member of the NAACP (1909), and the first Black woman to serve on a U.S. board of education (D.C., 1895). In 1950, at 86, she led the fight to desegregate Washington, D.C. restaurants, culminating in the unanimous Supreme Court victory in District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co. on June 8, 1953. She died in 1954.
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