§ 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.