Negro Dentist Sues to Desegregate Nashville Motel

    PRESS RELEASE ® ) 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TOCOLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

Ss 

NEGRO DENTIST SUES TO 
DESEGREGATE NASHVILLE MOTEL 

February 11, 1963 

NEW YORK -- A federal suit challenging segregation in a Nashville, 

Tenn. motel was filed this morning by a Negro resident of Memphis. 

The suit is considered extremely significant by NAACP Legal 

Defense Fund attorneys representing the plaintiff, Vasco A. Smith, 

Jr., because the motel, Holiday Inn-Capitol Hill, was constructed as 

part of an urban redevelopment project, 

The complaint was filed by Nashville NAACP attorney Avon N, 

Williams in the federal district court for the Middle District of 

Tennessee. It alleges that the motel "is the product of indispensabl 

federal, state, and local governmental, as well as private action", 

and is thus subject to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the 

United States Constitution, and the President's executive housing 

order of November 20, 1962 prohibiting racial discrimination, 

The suit asks that the court enjoin the motel from discriminatin: 

on the basis of race, and open its facilities to all Negroes in 

addition to the plaintiff. 

A reservation for Dr. Smith, a dentist who lives in Memphis, was 

made December 4, 1962 by Mr. Carroll Barber of Nashville for the 

following night. When Dr. Smith, in the company of Mr. Barber, went 

to the motel desk to claim his room, he was told that his reservation 

could not be honored as the motel did not serve Negroes. A few 

minutes later, the complaint states, a white man, Rev. Robert C. 

Palmer, entered the motel and was informed that single rooms were 

available. 

Holiday Inn-Capitol Hill was built on land acquired from the 

Nashville Housing Authority in 1958 and 1959 for an estimated cost of 



motel - 2 

$194,771. The Nashville Housing Authority had condemned the 

redevelopment project area in 1952, of which 50% of the land, it is 

alleged, was owned or occupied by Negroes. The area is being 

redeveloped through a 1952 contract between the Nashville Housing 

Authority and the federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, under 

which the federal government agreed to pay two-thirds of the net 

cost of the project, and the city of Nashville the remaining one- 

third. 

The complaint points out that "defendants serve the public 

purpose of providing lodging, dining and recreational facilities to 

motorists visiting the capitol of the State of Tennessee, while at 

the same time enjoying the opportunity to pursue private gain." 

It adds that “there are no adequate, first-class motel facilities 

open to Negroes in the central commercial district of Nashville." 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys for Mr. Smith are Avon N. 

Williams and Z. Alexander Looby of Nashville, Tenn.; A. W. Willis of 

Memphis, Tenn.; and Jack Greenberg and Constance Baker Motley of New 

York City. 

STATEMENT BY LEGAL DEFENSE FUND DIRECTOR-COUNSEL 
JACK GREENBERG ON THE NASHVILLE MOTEL SUIT 

"This case is far more significant than the question of desegre- 

gating a single motel. It involves the constitutionality of excludinc 

Negroes from an urban renewal site that is the product of local, state 

and federal planning and financing. 

"The cities of the nation are being remade by urban renewal. 

Negroes generally are cleared out of the central city sites where the 

plans are carried out and shunted off to new and more crowded ghettos. 

"This suit has the same goal as the President's new housing 

order, but has the advantage of enabling the injured parties them- 

selves to commence a case in the federal district court."