Miami Beach’s Efforts to Ban Discriminatory Signs
Although the U.S. Constitution bars government discrimination based on religion, private discrimination based on race and religion endured well into the 20th century. The passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination based on religion in "public accommodations," which were defined as establishments that serve the public.
This is the story of Miami Beach banning religious and racial discriminatory signs in the late 1940s. Although looking back from today’s perspective, we may see this as a small step towards equal rights, at the time, it was seen as a significant advance.
(Hadassah PowerPoint)
After World War 2, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith started a campaign to remove discriminatory signs in Miami Beach. Seventeen World War 2 veterans were sent to meet with hotel and apartment house managers who displayed such signs to end the practice. This tactic was effective, as over half of the discriminatory signs were taken down. However, not fully satisfied, the Anti-Defamation League drafted a one-page ordinance that outlawed signs displaying the coded words “restricted,” “gentiles,” “gentiles only,” or other discriminatory words or phrases in any “hotel or apartment house or other establishment which caters to the public in the City of Miami Beach.” On May 7, 1947, the Miami Beach City Council unanimously enacted the measure as Ordinance 806.
(Hadassah PowerPoint)
The Florida courts, however, refused to enforce the Miami Beach Ordinance on jurisdictional grounds in a case decided by Dade County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Milledge. He made clear that he did not object to the ordinance's constitutionality but rather had concluded that the powers delegated to Miami Beach by the Florida Legislature were insufficient to support the ordinance. He rejected the defense argument that the ordinance was unconstitutional, depriving property owners of “free speech, free press, and the full use” of their property.
( Hadassah PowerPoint)
The ruling proved to be a temporary setback. Proponents of the ordinance took the fight to the Florida legislature. Chapter 26026, Laws of Florida, specifically enabled Miami Beach to adopt an anti-discrimination sign ordinance. The Florida statute was adopted in May of 1949 and signed by Governor Fuller Warren. The state statute provided authorization for Miami Beach to prohibit any “written or printed advertisement in any form or of whatever nature” that “is intended to or tends to discriminate directly or indirectly against…any person…of any religion, or any religious belief, sect, creed, race or denomination.” The law applied to “inns, taverns, roadhouses, hotels, and apartment hotels,” along with restaurants, saloons, stores, barber shops, theatres, parks, and similar public accommodations.
( Hadassah PowerPoint)
With this enabling law, the Miami Beach City Council quickly approved a new anti-discrimination sign law. Ordinance 883 was approved on June 15, 1949. The readopted ordinance largely followed the provisions of the state statute cited above. The ordinance was enforceable with a fine not exceeding $500 and imprisonment of up to 90 days.