Select Realty Pickets

In August of 1963, civil rights demonstrators picketed the Select Rental Agency in San Francisco’s Mission district over the firm’s discriminatory rental practices. Led by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the W.E.B. Dubois Club, the NAACP, and other activist organizations, the pickets demanded an end to prejudicial treatment of black renters at the hands of the firm’s owner, Samuel Peitchel. After several months of protests and a legal suit brought against the picketers by Peitchel, an agreement was reached during negotiations between the company and the demonstrators, ending both discriminatory practices and public picketing. The success of the Select Rental Agency demonstrations in combating racial discrimination ushered in a year of direct action and civil rights agitation in San Francisco.