Daniel v. Paul

In Daniel v. Paul, 395 U.S. 298, 89 S.Ct. 1697, 23 L.Ed.2d 318 (1969), the issue was whether an amusement area with a lake for swimming and boating open only to whites was a public accommodation. Although the snack bar brought the amusement area within the Civil Rights Act, the Supreme Court went beyond the holding to reject the argument that " 'place of entertainment' refers only to establishments where patrons are entertained as spectators or listeners rather than those where entertainment takes the form of direct participation in some sport or activity." Id. at 306, 89 S.Ct. at 1701. The Court said that under the dictionary definition of entertainment, "the act of diverting, amusing, or causing someone's time to pass agreeably: [synonymous with] amusement," the lake was a "place of entertainment." The Court said that this interpretation is consistent with the statutory purpose, "to remove the daily affront and humiliation involved in discriminatory denials of access to facilities ostensively open to the general public." Id. at 307-08, 89 S.Ct. at 1702.