NAACP Pickets Howard Johnson in the Village

May 9, 1963, Vol. VIII, No. 29

NAACP Pickets Howard Johnson

The Chelsea-Greenwich Village Branch of the NAACP last weekend began picketing the Howard Johnson Restaurant at 415 Sixth Avenue, charging it with discriminatory hiring practices. The charges were also levelled at Local 11 of the Restaurant Employees Union, which supplies the restaurant with help.

The picket line began Friday evening. It was led for a time by Herbert Hill, the National Labor Secretary of the NAACP. A small, orderly group began walking back and forth carrying signs which read "Refuses to Hire Negro Waiters or Countermen," and "Negroes In The Kitchen But Not In The Dining Room." A leaflet passed out by the picketers stated all attempts to negotiate with the restaurant had failed. It asked Villagers not to patronize the establishment, and suggested they write either the owner, or the union president, requesting that Negroes be hired as waiters. At one point local members of the Congress On Racial Equality (CORE) joined the line.

As the Voice went to press the picketing was continuing for a limited time each day.

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