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Va. Hotel Beats Betreaton Bias; Move is Hailed

November 13, 1934
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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Leading citizens of the South joined today with the section’s press in hailing the end of a racial prejudice incident that for a time threatened to develop into a national scandal.

Announcement was made Saturday by J. Wesley Gardner, manager of the New Chamberlin Hotel, which had been severely criticized by many prominent persons, both Jewish and non-Jewish, for advertising its preference for a Gentile clientele, that the institution would discontinue its objectionable policy and in the future welcome guests of all religions. The hotel is at Old Point Comfort on a Federal reservation.

SENATORS ENTER CASE

The fact that the New Chamberlin is located on government property brought its anti-Jewish policy into the national limelight. Protests had been made by Rabbi Louis D. Mendoza of Norfolk to Senators Glass and Byrd. Both Senators voiced strong objections to the New Chamberlin’s policy in letters to President Roosevelt and to the War Department, which has jurisdiction over the reservation.

Senator Byrd, in his letter to Secretary of War Dern, threatened that, unless his department took action in the matter, he would introduce legislation at the next session of Congress which would put the hotel under jurisdiction of Virginia laws. Charges that the

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