FLOYD SKINNER

Floyd Skinner was born in 1902 in Benzie County, Michigan. At around 12 years old, Skinner moved to Grand Rapids with his family and attended Union High School. He also worked railroad jobs and played semi‑professional baseball with the Grand Rapids Colored Athletics, a predecessor to the Grand Rapids Black Sox of Negro League fame. Skinner went on to attend the University of Michigan, where he graduated with a law degree in 1926, only 27 years after the first black student was admitted to U of M law.  After returning to Grand Rapids, Skinner became the first African American member of the Grand Rapids Bar Association.
 

Skinner was a longtime member of the Grand Rapids branch of the NAACP, serving five separate terms as president between approximately 1927 and 1962. Under his leadership, the chapter pressed for equal opportunities in employment and educational systems (for example, pushing for hiring of Black teachers) among other civil rights issues.
 

Skinner also had business and social ventures: he established Club Indigo, located at 746 South Division Avenue, which was intended for social, athletic, and civic purposes, and became the first Black nightclub in Grand Rapids. In the 1930s, Skinner co-founded the Progressive Voters League with Milo Brown (also a prominent Black business owner in Grand Rapids). In its first year, the League reportedly helped get over 75% of eligible Black voters in Grand Rapids to register/vote.
 

Bolden v. Grand Rapids Operating Corporation, 239 Mich. 318 (1927)

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While in his final year of law school, Skinner assisted Black attorney Oliver M. Green in the case Bolden v. Grand Rapids Operating Corporation, serving as a researcher. This is one of the key legal milestones tied to Skinner’s early legal/civil rights work.
 

Emmett N. Bolden, a Black dentist in Grand Rapids, attempted on December 12, 1925, to purchase a first‑floor ticket at a theater owned by Grand Rapids Operating Corporation (also known as the Keith Theatre). He was denied that due to his race; Black patrons were restricted to the balcony. Bolden sued for $1,000 in civil damages, even though Michigan’s Civil Rights Act (Public Act 130 of 1885, as amended) was framed as a criminal statute. The claim was that the theater violated the law by denying Bolden equal access to public accommodations.
 

The trial court initially dismissed his claim, holding that (a) the Civil Rights Act did not provide a civil cause of action, and (b) the defendant claimed that regulation of a private theater in this way violated due process (as it interfered with private property rights). However, on June 6, 1927, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed that dismissal, holding:

1. The state civil rights act of 1885 (amended 1919) was constitutional as applied to public accommodations, including theaters.

2. The statute did confer a private right of action, even though the statute was criminal in nature.

 

This decision helped enforce Michigan’s civil rights statute in a meaningful way, setting precedent for legal recourse by individuals denied public accommodations, and contributing to the erosion of de jure segregation in public spaces in Michigan. Prior to that, laws banning discrimination often were criminal statutes or civil statutes without clear mechanisms for individuals to enforce rights.