Ollie’s Barbecue
E53956
Ollie’s Barbecue was a family-owned Birmingham, Alabama restaurant whose racially discriminatory service practices led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Katzenbach v. McClung on the scope of federal civil rights law under the Commerce Clause.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Ollie’s Barbecue canonical | 9 |
| Ollie’s Barbecue was engaged in interstate commerce | 1 |
| Ollie’s Barbecue, Birmingham, Alabama | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T429845 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ollie’s Barbecue Context triple: [Katzenbach v. McClung, respondentBusiness, Ollie’s Barbecue]
-
A.
SW Steakhouse
SW Steakhouse is an upscale fine-dining steak restaurant located at the Wynn Las Vegas resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
-
B.
Kenny Rogers Roasters
Kenny Rogers Roasters is a restaurant chain known for its wood-fired rotisserie chicken and casual dining concept, originally co-founded by country singer Kenny Rogers.
-
C.
Ale & Compass Restaurant
Ale & Compass Restaurant is a nautical-themed dining venue at Walt Disney World known for its New England-inspired comfort food and relaxed, upscale atmosphere.
-
D.
Clyde's
Clyde's is a contemporary stage play, written by Lynn Nottage, that blends comedy and drama in its portrayal of formerly incarcerated workers rebuilding their lives in a truck-stop sandwich shop.
-
E.
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Yachtsman Steakhouse is an upscale, New England–style steakhouse at Walt Disney World known for its premium cuts of beef and refined, nautical-themed dining atmosphere.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Ollie’s Barbecue Target entity description: Ollie’s Barbecue was a family-owned Birmingham, Alabama restaurant whose racially discriminatory service practices led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Katzenbach v. McClung on the scope of federal civil rights law under the Commerce Clause.
-
A.
SW Steakhouse
SW Steakhouse is an upscale fine-dining steak restaurant located at the Wynn Las Vegas resort on the Las Vegas Strip.
-
B.
Kenny Rogers Roasters
Kenny Rogers Roasters is a restaurant chain known for its wood-fired rotisserie chicken and casual dining concept, originally co-founded by country singer Kenny Rogers.
-
C.
Ale & Compass Restaurant
Ale & Compass Restaurant is a nautical-themed dining venue at Walt Disney World known for its New England-inspired comfort food and relaxed, upscale atmosphere.
-
D.
Clyde's
Clyde's is a contemporary stage play, written by Lynn Nottage, that blends comedy and drama in its portrayal of formerly incarcerated workers rebuilding their lives in a truck-stop sandwich shop.
-
E.
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Yachtsman Steakhouse is an upscale, New England–style steakhouse at Walt Disney World known for its premium cuts of beef and refined, nautical-themed dining atmosphere.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
defendant in U.S. Supreme Court case
ⓘ
family-owned business ⓘ restaurant ⓘ |
| affectedInterstateCommerce | yes ⓘ |
| associatedWithConstitutionalProvision |
Commerce Clause
ⓘ
surface form:
Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution
|
| associatedWithGovernmentOfficial |
Nicholas deB. Katzenbach
ⓘ
surface form:
Nicholas Katzenbach
|
| associatedWithLaw | Civil Rights Act of 1964 ⓘ |
| businessType | public accommodation ⓘ |
| category |
Civil rights era restaurant
ⓘ
United States Supreme Court case landmark business ⓘ |
| challenged | constitutionality of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as applied to it ⓘ |
| city | Birmingham ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| courtCaseDecisionYear | 1964 ⓘ |
| courtCaseJurisdiction | Supreme Court of the United States ⓘ |
| customerSeatingPolicy | dining area reserved for white customers only ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | landmark example of federal power to prohibit racial discrimination in local businesses ⓘ |
| impactOnCivilRightsEnforcement | confirmed federal authority to enforce desegregation of restaurants ⓘ |
| impactOnCivilRightsJurisprudence | expanded interpretation of interstate commerce to include local restaurants using out-of-state supplies ⓘ |
| industry | food service industry ⓘ |
| involvedInCourtCase | Katzenbach v. McClung ⓘ |
| knownFor |
racially discriminatory service practices
ⓘ
refusing to serve Black customers in its dining area ⓘ |
| legalIssue |
application of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to restaurants
ⓘ
scope of federal civil rights law under the Commerce Clause ⓘ |
| legalPrecedentFor | federal regulation of discriminatory practices in small, local businesses tied to interstate commerce ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Birmingham, Alabama, United States
ⓘ
surface form:
Birmingham, Alabama
United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| notableFor | being a test case for the reach of Title II public accommodations provisions ⓘ |
| operatedBy |
Ollie McClung, Sr.
ⓘ
surface form:
Ollie McClung, Jr.
Ollie McClung, Sr. ⓘ |
| opposedBy |
United States Department of Justice
ⓘ
surface form:
U.S. Department of Justice
|
| ownedBy | McClung family ⓘ |
| percentageOfFoodFromOutOfState | approximately 50 percent ⓘ |
| receivedGoodsFrom | out-of-state suppliers ⓘ |
| relatedCase | Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States ⓘ |
| servedCuisine |
Southern food
ⓘ
barbecue ⓘ |
| servicePolicyBeforeCase | refused to serve Black customers on premises except for take-out ⓘ |
| state | Alabama ⓘ |
| status | defunct ⓘ |
| subjectOf | Katzenbach v. McClung ⓘ |
| SupremeCourtHoldingEffect |
required to cease racial discrimination in service
ⓘ
subject to federal regulation under the Commerce Clause ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfNotoriety | 1960s ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Ollie’s Barbecue Description of subject: Ollie’s Barbecue was a family-owned Birmingham, Alabama restaurant whose racially discriminatory service practices led to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Katzenbach v. McClung on the scope of federal civil rights law under the Commerce Clause.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Ollie’s Barbecue purchased a substantial portion of its food from out-of-state suppliers
→
supportsFinding
→
Ollie’s Barbecue
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Ollie’s Barbecue was engaged in interstate commerce
Ollie’s Barbecue refused to serve Black customers in its dining area
→
involves
→
Ollie’s Barbecue
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Ollie’s Barbecue, Birmingham, Alabama