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Slavery & Servitude. The Supreme Court also rejected arguments that forcing a motel or restaurant owner to serve Negroes amounts to "involuntary servitude" (which, ironically, is prohibited under the anti-slavery 13th Amendment) for the proprietor. Clark cited the ancient common-law rule that inn keepers must serve any well-behaved person, also noted that longstanding public accommodations laws in 32 states have never been successfully challenged.
The court dealt harshly with the claim that a proprietor who cannot choose his customers as he wishes is deprived of property without the due process of law guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment. In a concurring opinion, Justice William O. Douglas cited with approval the following argument: "The institution of private property exists for the purpose of enhancing the individual freedom and liberty of human beings," and is often restricted for just that reason. "The most striking example of this is the abolition of slavery. Slaves were treated as items of private property; yet surely no man dedicated to the cause of individual freedom could contend that individual freedom and liberty suffered by emancipation of the slaves. There is not any question that ordinary zoning laws place far greater restrictions upon the rights of private property owners than would public accommodations legislation."
This whole line of reasoning was easily applied by the court in the case of the Heart of Atlanta Motel, which fronts on an interstate highway, welcomes white transients, advertises in national magazines, and gets 75% of its guests from outside Georgia. Ollie's Barbecue was a tougher problem, since it is eleven blocks from the nearest interstate highway, does not advertise, seeks no transients. Although it is in a Negro neighborhood and employs 24 Negroes, it serves Negroes only from a take-out counter. Yet Ollie's beef—some $70,000 worth last year—was purchased from a Birmingham wholesaler who imported it from Hormel meat-packing plants outside of Alabama. Racial discrimination, ruled the court, affects the volume of Ollie's business, and therefore the amount of meat it buys.
"We Must Bow." Upon hearing of the decision, Moreton Rolleston, president of the Heart of Atlanta Motel, complained: "This makes possible a socialistic state." Ollie McClung Sr., co-owner of Ollie's Barbecue, declared: "I'm shocked."
Yet, despite their distress, Ollie, 48, and his son Ollie Jr., 24, announced that "as law-abiding Americans, we feel we must bow to this edict." Two hours later, five Negroes walked into Ollie's —which grosses some $450,000 annually—and were served. As for the motel, it had begun accepting Negroes under an earlier federal court order, but only five couples had applied so far—probably because its rates are the highest in Atlanta. And even Rolleston took a philosophical view of the eventual outcome of such race controversies. "With my grandchildren, there won't be any problems at all," he said. "They won't even know there were any."