United States ex rel. Katzenbach v. Clarksdale King & Anderson Co.

288 F. Supp. 792, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7282
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedNovember 11, 1965
DocketCiv. A. No. DC 6461
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 288 F. Supp. 792 (United States ex rel. Katzenbach v. Clarksdale King & Anderson Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Katzenbach v. Clarksdale King & Anderson Co., 288 F. Supp. 792, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7282 (N.D. Miss. 1965).

Opinion

PROPOSED ORDER OF FINAL JUDGMENT OF PERMANENT INJUNCTION

CLAYTON, District Judge.

On November 8, 1965, the above captioned case came on for hearing before the Court on plaintiff’s motion for sum[793]*793mary judgment, and the parties were represented before the Court by their respective counsel, and this Court, being fully advised in the premises, finds as follows:

FINDINGS OF FACT

The premises known through July 7, 1964 as the Alcazar Hotel and Coffee Shop, since August 3, 1964, as the Regency Club and since February 1, 1965, as the Regency Club and. Central Building, located at the corner of Yazoo and 3rd Streets in Clarksdale, Mississippi, are now and have been for some years the property of Clarksdale King & Anderson Company. W. K. Anderson is Vice President of this company and holds 40% of the stock. These premises contain some 60 usable rooms, and a coffee shop which does an annual business of about $85,000. About 80% of the occupied rooms in these premises have consistently been held by permanent residents; 20% of the occupied rooms were used by transients up to February 1, 1965. Occupancy level was ordinarily about 50%, and there were generally about 30 rooms unoccupied and available. A substantial portion of the food served in the Coffee Shop located in these premises originates outside of Mississippi and has moved in interstate commerce.

Up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Alcazar Hotel and Coffee Shop were an all white restaurant and hotel. Fred E. Pelegrin was general manager of the hotel premises and assisted his wife in managing the coffee shop. The Pelegrins were employed by Clarksdale King & Anderson Company.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, the employees of Alcazar Hotel and Coffee Shop were instructed by Clarksdale King & Anderson Company to refuse service to Negroes, in accordance with the policy of the owners of the company.

On July 6, 1964, Rev. George W. Trotter, III, of Memphis, Tennessee, a Negro, attempted to obtain a room at the Alcazar Hotel, and Mrs. Vera Mae Pigee of Clarksdale, Mississippi, a Negro, attempted to obtain service at the Alcazar Coffee Shop; both were refused because of their race and color.

About July 7, 1964, the owners decided to close the Alcazar Hotel and Coffee Shop to avoid serving Negroes there. On July 27, 1964, the Regency Club, Inc. was founded; president of this corporation is Whitman Johnson and Secretary-Treasurer is Roy Mclnnis. On August 3, 1964, the following oral proposition of the Clarksdale King & Anderson Company was accepted by the Regency Club:

“President Johnson” * * * “reported to the Board that Clarksdale King & Anderson Company, a Mississippi corporation, had offered to furnish to the members of this club and their designated guests, to the exclusion of all other persons, all of the hotel and restaurant facilities which that company had at prevailing prices, with said corporation reserving the right to cancel said offer on 10 days’ written notice to this club”
“After full discussion, a motion was made by Lester Sack, seconded by R. E. Mclnnis and unanimously adopted that the Regency Club, Incorporated, accept said offer of Clarksdale King & Anderson and avail itself exclusively of the proposals made in said offer, with the agreement on the part of said club to pay all prevailing prices for eating and rooming privileges offered by Clarksdale King & Anderson Company.”

This was the entire agreement between Clarksdale King & Anderson Company and Regency Club, Inc. No financial payments were made by Regency Club to Clarksdale King & Anderson Company, or vice versa. All management and staff of the premises were provided by Clarksdale King & Anderson Company, and Fred Pelegrin remained as manager of the premises. Regency Club, Inc. could not tell Clarksdale King & Anderson Company how to manage the premises, and in the event of any conflict as to management policy or practice, [794]*794Clarksdale King & Anderson Company controlled. All revenue received from room rentals and coffee shop was deposited by Mr. Pelegrin in the K & A Club account for Clarksdale King & Anderson Company.

Between July 7 and July 27, the permanent residents of the premises were advised by manager Pelegrin that the Regency Club was being organized and that they could retain their rooms by filling in application blanks and paying $2.00 membership initiation fees. They retained their accommodations during this period. There was no formal agreement between Regency Club, Inc. and Clarksdale King & Anderson Company until August 3, 1964. The August 3, 1964 relationship remained in effect until February 1, 1965.

Mr. Mclnnis and Mr. Johnson are authorized to sign checks on the Regency Club bank account; the only revenue received by the club is membership fees.

Mr. Whitman Johnson, President of Regency Club, Inc., discussed opening the Alcazar Hotel and Coffee Shop as the Regency Club, Inc. with Mr. Pele-grin and Mr. W. K. Anderson. He understood that the premises were closed to avoid serving Negroes.

Membership in the Regency Club, Inc. is obtained upon the action of any two members of the Membership Committee; in practice, this has been Mr. Johnson and Mr. Mclnnis. Originally, the procedure followed for obtaining membership in the Regency Club was as follows: Application blank forms were available from the desk clerk on duty, an employee of Clarksdale King & Anderson Company, or from Mr. Pelegrin; the desk clerk was authorized to accept the application blanks and the initiation fees, but could not refuse to accept a tendered application. The application blanks, filled out and executed by prospective members, were kept at the desk until President Whitman Johnson came in to look at the applications. He did not check the references. Out of approximately 1000 applications, he might possibly have rejected two or three.

After the application blanks were examined by Mr. Johnson, Mr. Pelegrin took them to Mr. Roy Mclnnis, Secretary-Treasurer of the Regency Club. When the application blanks were presented to Mr. Mclnnis he understood Mr. Johnson had approved them and signed the membership card which Mr. Pelegrin presented to him with application. He signed almost all of the membership cards issued. He never rejected any application for membership, and had never been told by Mr. Johnson of any rejected application.

The applications for membership in the Regency Club were not designed by Mr. Johnson. On November 3, 1964 Mr. Johnson did not know the qualifications for admission to membership in the club.

On November 3, 1964, Mr. Mclnnis stated he did not know the qualifications for membership in the Regency Club, other than the filing of an application blank and the payment of $2.00 initiation fee and white skin. He acknowledged that the hotel premises were originally closed because Negroes sought accommodations there. Mr. Mclnnis neither checked the references of any applicant, nor caused such references to be checked by anyone else. Messrs. Johnson and Mclnnis routinely admitted persons whom they did not know or investigate to membership in Regency Club. Transient non-members were accommodated in the premises between August 3, 1964 and February 1, 1965.

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Bluebook (online)
288 F. Supp. 792, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-katzenbach-v-clarksdale-king-anderson-co-msnd-1965.