Washington Writes Equal Access to Inns, Barbershops and Streetcars Into Law
In March 1895 the state legislature amended its civil-rights code so that every person in Washington — 'of whatever race, color or nationality' — could claim the full enjoyment of public accommodations, with fines and jail for those who refused.
OLYMPIA, March 15. — Full enjoyment of all public privileges, advantages and facilities are now assured to the people of the state of Washington. This is due to the bill introduced and pressed to final passage by Major B. H. Mettleton, representative from King county, which provides that section 3166 of the code of laws is hereby amended to read as follows:
"All persons within the jurisdiction of the state of Washington shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the public accommodations and advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, restaurants, eating houses, barber shops, public conveyances on land or water, theaters and other places of public accommodation and amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and alike to all citizens."
There is now little danger of any attempt at discrimination on account of race or color, inasmuch as the law provides that "any person who shall violate the foregoing section by denying to any citizen, except for reason by law applicable to citizens of whatever race, color or nationality, the full enjoyment of any of the public accommodations, advantages, facilities, or privileges in said section enumerated, or by aiding or inciting such denial, shall, for every such offense, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum not less than $50 nor more than $300, or shall be imprisoned not less than thirty days nor more than six months."
“All persons within the jurisdiction of the state of Washington shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the public accommodations and advantages, facilities and privileges of inns, restaurants, eating houses, barber shops, public conveyances on land or water, theaters and other places of public accommodation and amusement.”
Washington's 1895 public-accommodations provision was one of the earliest of its kind, yet the decades that followed saw segregation re-entrench in theaters, restaurants and streetcars, and the promise had to be fought for again and again. The same language — who may enter, who may be served, and who enforces it — still sits at the center of American civil-rights argument today.
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