State of Iowa v. Katz (241 Iowa 115, 40 N.W. 2d 41 (1949)) was a landmarkcivil rights victory involving theKatz Drug Store in downtownDes Moines, Iowa.[1]
On July 7, 1948, at 3:45 p.m.,Edna Griffin, her infant daughter Phyllis, John Bibbs, and Leonard Hudson entered the Katz Drug Store in Des Moines, Iowa, and orderedice cream at thelunch counter. The manager refused to serve them, saying, "It is the policy of our store that we don't serve colored." Outraged members of the community responded withsit-ins andpicketing directed at Katz and other local lunch counters that refused to serve people because of race.
ThePolk County Attorney's Office prosecuted the Katz manager under Iowa's only civil rights law, a criminalstatute prohibitingdiscrimination in public accommodations. The manager was found guilty by an all-white jury and fined $50. The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the conviction on December 13, 1949.
On December 2, 1949, civil rights attorneys Charles P. Howard and Henry T. McKnight, who was head of the localNAACP Legal Redress Committee, negotiated an agreement, which successfully ended Katz's discriminatory practices.
In 1884, theIowa General Assembly enacted a law making it a crime to deny any individual "The full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges ofinns,restaurants,chophouses, eating houses, lunch counters, and all other places where refreshments are served,public conveyances,barber shops,bathhouses,theaters, and all other places of amusement," on the basis of such factors as race, religion, or ethnic background.
Prior to 1884, onlyMassachusetts,New York, andKansas had enacted statutes that guaranteedAfrican Americans and other minority groups equal opportunity in "places of public accommodation."
The Iowastate courts, however, tended to interpret narrowly thelegislative intent of the 1884 Act. Because the public accommodations provision specifically enumerated types of facilities, the court construed that it necessarily meant to exclude from its operation those facilities not so listed. Many kinds of establishments catering to the public were therefore left untouched by this provision; these establishments retained an unfettered discretion to discriminate among their patrons on such bases as race, religion, or ethnic background. Among establishments that were exempt from the proscriptions of the 1884 Civil Rights Act, were retail stores,beauty shops and salons,parking lots,gas stations,schools, healthclinics,doctors' anddentists' offices,hospitals,banks,loan companies,lawyers' offices,real estate brokers' offices,employment agency offices, as well as many others.
