Latin America: Mistake at the Serrador

The U.S. Embassy staff in Rio was doubly surprised last week. In the first place, they did not realize that Dr. Irene Diggs, the State Department exchange student for whom they had booked a hotel reservation, was a Negro. And they did not dream that in Brazil, which has enough mixed blood to have almost forgotten race distinctions, a hotel would turn a Negro away.

But that was what happened when trim, 40-year-old Ellen Irene Diggs, Ph.D. in sociology and anthropology at the University of Havana, registered at Rio's new, 2O-story Hotel Serrador. Dr. Diggs went off without fuss to another hotel....

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!