 Claude Yates had recently retired as Vice President and General Manager of Southern Bell in Jacksonville and been named president of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce in 1964 when all 15 public high schools lost their accreditation; they were still segregated despite the 1954 "Brown v. Board of Education" ruling by the US Supreme Court.That year Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act that ended legal racial segregation of public facilities, and the state was working to adapt to other changes.On January 19, 1965 Yates called a lunch meeting of the chamber at the Robert Meyer Hotel to decide on a course of action for the region.