Social Club’s Liquor License Gambit Fails
A club for 'colored gentlemen' finds their strategy to circumvent licensing laws derailed by a bureaucratic oversight in their incorporation paperwork.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The officers of the colored gentlemen's social club, who were brought before Judge Griffin yesterday to answer the charge of selling liquor without a license, completed the incorporation of their club yesterday. The club officers, on the advice of their attorney, Lawrence Sledge, decided that an incorporated club could sell liquor to its members without a license. When the trio were arrested on warrants issued from the city attorney's office, they informed the attorney of the privileges of an incorporated organization, but on looking over the incorporation papers they found that the Assembly Social Club was not incorporated. They had neglected to file a copy of their articles with the county auditor, which is required by law. This they lost no time in doing yesterday. Arguments in the case will be heard by Judge Griffin tomorrow.
“They had neglected to file a copy of their articles with the county auditor, which is required by law.”
This incident highlights the precarious intersection of racial exclusion, liquor regulation, and the law in early Tacoma. Black social clubs often utilized incorporation as a shield against discriminatory police practices or arbitrary licensing enforcement.
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