While I can't know what the owner of the lunch counter in Greensboro thought (actually the owner, F.W. Woolworth did ultimately put pressure on its local managers to desegregate), based on my research on the civil rights movement in Cambridge, MD, I do know that some small businessmen argued that they chose not to desegregate because they feared losing their largely white supremacist customers if they did. Interestingly, they and others observed that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 freed them from this dilemma as it put all small businessmen on an even playing field. In fact, they complained about the double standard enjoyed by many elite whites who proclaimed their support for desegregation yet simultaneouly dined at exclusive clubs that had no black members. (Most assumed that the Civil Rights Act would not apply to private clubs.) Yours, Peter Levy, York College ica cm On Wed, 4 Oct 2000, Jerry West wrote: > Mark Bunster wrote: > > Did the owner of the lunch kitchen in Greensboro say to himself, "By > golly, it just doesn't make good capitalist SENSE to turn away business! > Here, sit right down and have some coffee! > > JW reply: > > Perhaps he weighed the number of customers that he would gain against > the number of customers that he would lose and made a strictly > capitalist decision. Or maybe he figured he would lose more than his > customers, possibly a capitalist decision depending on what he stood to > lose. > :) > > -- > Jerry West > Editor/publisher/janitor > ---------------------------------------------------- > THE RECORD > On line news from Nootka Sound & Canada's West Coast > An independent, progressive regional publication > http://www.island.net/~record/ >
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