The Washington Lawyers’ Committee’s Fifty-Year Battle for Racial Equality in Places of Public Accommodation
This Article is written as part of a series of articles to commemorate the Washington Lawyers' Committee's fiftieth anniversary. For the first time, it seeks to chronicle the Committee's role in combatting discrimination in the provision of public accommodations over its fifty years, and to place this work in the context of the broader development of applicable law and the evolution of American society. While cases that have set beneficial precedent or generated landmark settlements deserve the attention they receive, what has been truly remarkable about the Lawyers' Committees' achievements in this area are the innovative and inclusive strategies the Committee has employed to pursue its work. The Committee has successfully marshaled the efforts of prominent members of the private bar and partnered with leading civil society and civil rights organizations. From its effective coordination with the Department of Justice to developing and pioneering the use of illuminating empirical studies, the Washington Lawyers' Committee's groundbreaking methods have strengthened the effectiveness of the use of civil rights litigation to challenge and modify the behavior of discriminating businesses that provide public accommodations. These innovations should continue to serve the interests of promoting "a single society and a single American identity" in the face of today's changing political and societal divides, and the evolution of disruptive new technologies that are shifting the ways public accommodations are delivered.