Lewis v. City of Grand Rapids, Michigan

FOX, District Judge.

This action involves the denial of a transfer and ultimate revocation by the Chief of Police and the City Commission of Grand Rapids of the only negro-owned-operated Class C liquor license in a city of over 200,000 population.

Plaintiff Alphonse Lewis, Jr., a negro, claims the refusal to transfer the license of Barnett’s Bar fom Patricia Ettress Bell, a negro, to him and Dr. Cortez English, a negro, denied him his constitutionally protected rights of due process and equal protection of the law guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

Pl…