Suit Against Tennessee Motel Cracks Urban Renewal Bigotry

Press Release
July 31, 1963

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Press Releases, Volume 1. Suit Against Tennessee Motel Cracks Urban Renewal Bigotry, 1963. a115cd7e-b492-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/732557dc-4240-4d3c-be47-390e12748847/suit-against-tennessee-motel-cracks-urban-renewal-bigotry. Accessed October 25, 2025.

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    PRESS RELEASE : 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TOCOLUMBUS CIRCLE «+ NEWYORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 
DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG 
President Director-Counsel once Mor 

ose 

SUIT AGAINST TENNESSEE MOTEL 
CRACKS URBAN RENEWAL BIGOTRY 

July 31, 1963 

NEW YORK -- The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. today 

announced victory in a suit that establishes the legal path for 

challenging discrimination taking place in any urban renewal program. 

The decision, handed down against a Tennessee motel chain, goes 

further than President Kennedy's executive housing order of November 2¢ 

1962, and used the Constitution as its legal foundation. 

Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, said 

that the U, S, Federal District Court ruling "denies the right of ee 

Holiday-Inns of America to decline accommodations to Negro citizens 

since it is situated on a federally underwritten urban renewal site. 

"The implications of the decision are vast," Mr. Greenberg con- * 

tinued, “for all the urban renewal projects constructed before 

President Kennedy's housing order and not expressly covered by it. 

"This decision also makes specific judicial relief available in 

instances of discrimination by urban renewal projects built since the 

Presidential order. 

"This will affect rental housing, homes for sale, commercial 

property and every other facility which has been built with urban 

renewal aid," the Legal Defense Fund's chief counsel said, 

The complaint was filed in the U, S, Federal District Court for 

the Middle District of Tennessee in February by Avon N, Williams and 

“2, Alexander Looby, NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys in Nashville; 

‘A, W, Willis, Memphis; Mr. Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley and Frank 

Heffron, of New York City, 

They“represented Dr. Vasco A, Smith, Jr,, a Negro dentist from 

Memphis, who was denied accommodations at the Holiday Tagg ee tet 

Hill motel on December 4, 1962, 

The motel was built on land acquired from the Nashvajhle Housing 

Authority in 1958 and 1959. The Nashville Housing Authority had con- 

demned the redevelopment project area in 1952, of which 90% of the 

land was owned or occupied by Negroes.

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Suit Against Tennessee Motel Cracks Urban Renewal Bigotry

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