Thompson's Restaurant Case

The law that ended restaurant segregation in the capital had been sitting unused for eighty years.

Collection: Washington: More Stories · USA · Open in OpenStreetMap

How the story begins

"Do you mean to tell me that you are not going to serve me?" Mary Church Terrell was eighty-six when she said that, at Thompson's Restaurant on this block, in January 1950. An office block stands on the spot now. Her parents had been enslaved. The manager told her Thompson's did not serve colored people. She had three companions with her, one of them a white man, and they had come to test something.

The rest is in the app. Peplos plays the full story when you reach the place. You can also listen ahead of time.

Visiting

725 14th Street NW. Site only: the restaurant's building is gone and the office building on the spot is seen from the street.

Sources

• WETA Boundary Stones: Eat Anywhere!
• DC Preservation League: Thompson's Restaurant and the Lost Laws
• National Park Service: Mary Church Terrell
• Wikipedia: District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co.

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