## Facts

- Wheaton-Haven Recreation Association operated a community swimming pool in Maryland.
- Its bylaws restricted use to “white members and their white guests.”
- The bylaws created membership advantages tied to residence within a defined “geographic preference area,” including: no need for member endorsement, priority for admission when full, and a “first option” on membership that could be conferred on a homebuyer when an owner-member sold a house.
- An African American couple (the Presses) bought a home within the preference area from a nonmember and sought pool membership.
- The association denied the Presses membership solely because of race.
- A white member couple brought an African American guest to the pool; the guest was refused entry solely because of race.
- Petitioners sued for declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1982 and under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- The district court granted summary judgment for the association, treating it as a Title II “private club” and effectively applying a similar exemption to § 1982; the Fourth Circuit affirmed.
- The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

## Issues

1. Whether a community pool association’s race-based denial of membership connected to residence-related membership benefits violates 42 U.S.C. § 1982.
2. Whether an association whose membership is open to all white residents in a defined area, with no selectivity other than race, qualifies as a “private club” under 42 U.S.C. § 2000a(e), and whether any such exemption limits §§ 1981 or 1982.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court unanimously reversed and remanded.
- The Court held the association’s racially discriminatory membership policy violated 42 U.S.C. § 1982 because the preference-area system conferred valuable, residence-linked membership benefits on white homeowners that were denied to Black homeowners.
- The Court held Wheaton-Haven was not a “private club” under § 2000a(e) where membership was open to every white person in the geographic area and the only selective element was race.
- The Court rejected treating Title II’s private-club exemption as implying an exemption from §§ 1981 and 1982.

## Legal Principles

- Section 1982 bars racial discrimination in access to and enjoyment of property-related benefits; membership rights and preferences tied to residential property can be “property” interests protected by § 1982.
- An entity is not a Title II “private club” when it is, in substance, broadly open to all whites in a defined area and lacks genuine selectivity apart from race.
- Title II’s private-club exemption does not create an implied limitation on the protections provided by §§ 1981 and 1982.

## Conclusion

The Court held that a neighborhood pool association could not use race-based membership and guest policies where membership advantages were tied to residence and thus implicated § 1982 property rights, and it further held the association was not a Title II “private club” because it lacked meaningful selectivity beyond race.


Tillman v. Wheaton-Haven Recreation Ass'n, Inc., 410 U.S. 431 (1973)