Evolution of Access to Public Accommodations in the United States*.

This article provides an economic analysis of racial discrimination in public accommodations in the United States before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, using a novel national data set derived from the Negro Motorist Green Books—travel guides published from 1936 to 1966 that listed nondiscriminatory businesses serving African American customers. The study documents geographic and temporal patterns in the availability of nondiscriminatory establishments and finds that economic, social, and legal factors, including state antidiscrimination laws, correlated with the presence of such businesses. Exploiting exogenous variation from white World War II casualties and Black migration, the authors show that increases in the Black population share led to modest growth in nondiscriminatory businesses, supporting the hypothesis that white consumer discrimination influenced firms’ segregation practices. The findings suggest that while market forces affected access to nondiscriminatory services, full desegregation required federal legislation, highlighting the critical role of the Civil Rights Act in ending racial discrimination in public accommodations.