N.Y. Civil Rights Law § 40: Equal rights in places of public accommodation, resort or amusement

§ 40. Equal rights in places of public accommodation, resort or

amusement. All persons within the jurisdiction of this state shall be

entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities

and privileges of any places of public accommodations, resort or

amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by

law and applicable alike to all persons. No person, being the owner,

lessee, proprietor, manager, superintendent, agent or employee of any

such place shall directly or indirectly refuse, withhold from or deny to

any person any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities or

privileges thereof, or directly or indirectly publish, circulate, issue,

display, post or mail any written or printed communication, notice or

advertisement, to the effect that any of the accommodations, advantages,

facilities and privileges of any such place shall be refused, withheld

from or denied to any person on account of race, creed, color or

national origin, or that the patronage or custom thereat, of any person

belonging to or purporting to be of any particular race, creed, color or

national original is unwelcome, objectionable or not acceptable, desired

or solicited. The production of any such written or printed

communication, notice or advertisement, purporting to relate to any such

place and to be made by any person being the owner, lessee, proprietor,

superintendent or manager thereof, shall be presumptive evidence in any

civil or criminal action that the same was authorized by such person. A

place of public accommodation, resort or amusement within the meaning of

this article, shall be deemed to include inns, taverns, road houses,

hotels, whether conducted for the entertainment of transient guests or

for the accommodation of those seeking health, recreation or rest, or

restaurants, or eating houses, or any place where food is sold for

consumption on the premises; buffets, saloons, barrooms, or any store,

park or enclosure where spirituous or malt liquors are sold; ice cream

parlors, confectioneries, soda fountains, and all stores where ice

cream, ice and fruit preparations or their derivatives, or where

beverages of any kind are retailed for consumption on the premises;

retail stores and establishments, dispensaries, clinics, hospitals,

bath-houses, barber-shops, beauty parlors, theatres, motion picture

houses, airdromes, roof gardens, music halls, race courses, skating

rinks, amusement and recreation parks, fairs, bowling alleys, golf

courses, gymnasiums, shooting galleries, billiard and pool parlors,

public libraries, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, high

schools, academies, colleges and universities, extension courses, and

all educational institutions under the supervision of the regents of the

state of New York; and any such public library, kindergarten, primary

and secondary school, academy, college, university, professional school,

extension course, or other educational facility, supported in whole or

in part by public funds or by contributions solicited from the general

public; garages, all public conveyances, operated on land or water, as

well as the stations and terminals thereof; public halls and public

elevators of buildings and structures occupied by two or more tenants,

or by the owner and one or more tenants. With regard to institutions for

the care of neglected and/or delinquent children supported directly or

indirectly, in whole or in part, by public funds, no accommodations,

advantages, facilities and privileges of such institutions shall be

refused, withheld from or denied to any person on account of race or

color. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to modify or

supersede any of the provisions of the children's court act, the social

welfare law or the domestic relations court act of New York city in

regard to religion of custodial persons or agencies or to include any

institution, club, or place of accommodation which is in its nature

distinctly private, or to prohibit the mailing of a private

communication in writing sent in response to a specific written inquiry.

No institution, club, organization or place of accommodation which

sponsors or conducts any amateur athletic contest or sparring exhibition

and advertises or bills such contest or exhibition as a New York state

championship contest or uses the words "New York state" in its

announcements shall be deemed a private exhibition within the meaning of

this section.