Supreme Court to Hear Argument on Memphis Airport Case February 26

Memorandum from Lani Guinier to Julius Chambers preview

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at

Collection
- Legal Department General
Creator
- Lani Guinier and others
Taxonomy
Identifier
- 4e10e17f-e892-ee11-be37-6045bdeb8873

Cite this item

Press Releases, Loose Pages. Supreme Court to Hear Argument on Memphis Airport Case February 26, 1962. 226762fa-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e5dde38b-4576-4c7b-9c9c-bcfa0124e569/supreme-court-to-hear-argument-on-memphis-airport-case-february-26. Accessed August 19, 2025.

Copied!

    PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

5 

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ARGUMENT ON 
MEMPHIS AIRPORT GASE FEBRUARY 26 

February 16, 1962 

NEW YORK - On Monday, February 26, the U. S. Supreme Court 

is scheduled to hear argument on Iurner v. City of Memphis, 

a case involving racial segregation in the Dobbs Houses 

restaurant in the Memphis, Tenn, airport. 

Mrs. Contance Baker Motley, Associate Counsel of the 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, will argue for 

Mr. Jesse Turner, the Appellant. 

Mr, Turner is appealing from a decision of a three-judge 

federal court of January 23, 1961 which refused to rule on 

the merits of the case. The lower court held that Mr, Turner 

should bring an action in Tennessee courts for construction 

of the state-wide regulation permitting segregation in res- 

taurants promulgated by the Tenn. Dept. of Conservation in 

1952, and for construction of an 1875 state statute giving 

the owners of hotels, public transportation or amusement 

facilities the right to choose their own customers. 

Mrs, Motley is expected to ask the Supreme Court to 

refer the case back to the lower court with instructions to 

decide the case on its merits, and to issue an injunction 

against segregation in the Dobbs Houses restaurant. 

Mr, Turner is the first Negro to be elected to the Demo- 

cratic County Committee in Shelby County, Tenn. since 

Reconstruction. He is executive vice-president and cashier 

of the Tri-State Bank in Memphis. 

The Dobbs Houses restaurant at the Memphis Airport is 

the one which refused service to Deputy Assistant Secretary 

of State Carl Rowan last month. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys representing Mr, Turner 

in addition to Mrs. Motley are R. B. Sugarmon, of Memphis, 

Tenn., and Jack Greenberg of New York City.

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Memorandum from Lani Guinier to Julius Chambers

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in