MY PEN IS MIGHTY

Racist Dress Codes Must End

Dressed to the nines or not, some restaurants just don’t want Black folk to show up. Let’s discuss.

Some dress codes at restaurants only materialize after Black patrons show up en masse. Photo: Getty Images

Whenever I go over to my mom’s house, one of my favorite activities is to look through all the family photos. The most exciting album dates back to the 1960s, when she and my father used to throw glamorous dinner and cocktail parties at their Nashville apartment.

I always thought they looked impossibly chic in these photos. The women wore brightly colored brocade or silk cocktail dresses with pearls while the men were decked out in dark, slim suits with skinny ties. They looked like The Supremes and The Temptations in every image, and I wondered for years why they were always so glammed up at home yet never at restaurants.

Despite the pretty pictures, there was a lot of ugliness going on simultaneously as my parents and other Black folks across the country were fighting against discrimination during the civil rights era. One of the demands was to be able to dine anywhere they wanted.

You’ve seen the photos and videos. Immaculately dressed Black people were spat upon, violently pushed, beaten, and arrested as they attempted to get service at restaurants all over the South. In addition to being well…