Marked by a small "Whites Only" sign on the front entrance, Johnny B. Goode's Diner on East Speedway Boulevard has just enacted a radical new segregationist policy.
"A lot of people think the 1950s were just about milkshakes and hoop skirts, but it was actually a horrible time in our country's civil rights history," said Milton Vorhees, owner of the Tucson branch of the nationwide chain. "We just want to be accurate to the times."
Quoting the restaurant's motto, Vorhees added, "At Johnny B. Goode's, it's always 1956."
Students and local residents were a bit more skeptical about the new policy.
"That's fucked up," said Pearce Shea, a dance senior. "Can they really do that?"
According to a rider attached to a 1996 agricultural regulations bill by former Sen. Strom Thurman, R-S.C., they can. The rider states that private institutions can enact segregationist policies in the interest of observing the country's history. The rider was passed as a compromise for Thurman's proposed White History Month bill and was overlooked until now.
Martha Mills, a member of the Tucson African-American Alliance and a participant in sit-ins and marches in Birmingham and Memphis in the 1960s, said she's disgusted with the new policy and plans to protest it.
"We did it once," she said. "We're going to do it again. The fight is never over as long as they keep bringing bullshit like this."
Mills and the TAAA are planning a sit-in next week, but city officials obligated to uphold the law have already prepared to defend it.
"We got dogs, fire hoses, all that," said Tucson Police Officer Arthur Delaney, who is himself an African-American. " But I really don't feel good about this at all. What if my mother sees me on TV? She fought against segregation in the '60s, and now she's going to see me fighting back? Sometimes this job just sucks. I'm thinking about quitting - maybe becoming a dentist or something."
As a matter of fact, nobody of any ethnicity has shown any interest in going to Johnny B. Goode's as long as they are operating under this policy.
"They're not even that good, and the waiters are really annoying," Shea said. "So it's definitely not worth being a racist just to eat there."
Despite the turmoil that the new "whites only" policy has created, Vorhees seems generally optimistic.
"I think people want to have an authentic experience when they come to Johnny B. Goode's, whether they are eating authentic 'Love Me Chick'n Tenders' or creating racial tension merely by showing up."
When asked whether he would lower his prices to 1950s numbers, Vorhees said, "Do you think I'm crazy? I'm running a business here."
He did unveil plans to interrogate customers who may potentially be communists and turn them into the authorities.
"They are pretty easy to spot," he said. "They usually just order a salad."