Federal Court Allows 'Rights Action at World's Fair Site

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- Press Releases
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- LDF
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- a831f77f-bd92-ee11-be37-6045bddb811f

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Federal Court Allows 'Rights Action at World's Fair Site, 1964. a831f77f-bd92-ee11-be37-6045bddb811f. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/25e582a6-cfb8-46bf-96a5-9fe2f8a7f482/federal-court-allows-rights-action-at-worlds-fair-site. Accessed October 31, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Circle 

New York, N.Y. 10019 

JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President July 2, 1964 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers 
Director-Counsel 

ack Greenberg 
ouinset 

Constance Baker Motley 

FEDERAL COURT ALLOWS ‘RIGHTS 
ACTION AT WORLD'S FAIR SITE 

NEW YORK, N.Y.--Civil rights groups, represented by the NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund and other attorneys, this week won the right 

to pass out handbills protesting southern discrimination at cer- 

tain World's Fair pavilions. 

Federal District Court Judge Harold R. Tyler also found the 

Fair's regulation prohibiting picketing to be vague, arbitrary 

and an unconstitutional burden on the enjoyment of free speech. 

He suggested that the anti-picketing regulation be rewritten 

so as to allow reasonable picketing demonstrations, 

Jack Greenberg, the Fund's director-counsel, stated that "we 

are pleased that the Court upheld our contention that state ac- 

tion so permeates the Fair's operation that it must now obey the 

free speech requirements of the fourteenth amendment. 

"This means that the civil rights organizations with whom we 

brought this suit may peacefully protest the racial discrimina- 

tory practices of southern states which have pavilions at the Fair," 

Judge Tyler stated that the World's Fair is "so impregnated 

with and supported by state and city action as to place it within 

the ambit of the fourteenth amendment." 

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund-led attorneys pointed out that the 

Fair has leased its property from the city, the city receives 

income from the Fair, the Fair is exempt from city and state taxes 

and all Fair buildings and improvements will become city property 

when the Fair closes. 

These conditions, the attorneys contended, make the Fair sub- 

ject to the restraints of the U.S. Constitution, against inter- 

fering with freedom of speech, even thought the Fair is a private 

corporation at this time. 

(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 So 



Sop aes 

Federal Court Allows 'Rights -2- July 2, 1964 
Action at World's Fair Site 

Judge Tyler agreed. 

Plaintiffs in the action were James Farmer, Executive Director 

of the Congress of Racial Equality; Eugene T. Reed, President 

of the New York State Conference of the N.A.A.C.P.; Rev. Gardner 

Taylor, Pastor of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn; and 

Rev. Robert J, Stone, Assistant Director of the Presbyterian 

Council on Religion and Race. 

Attorneys joining Mr. Greenberg in this action were Carl Rachlin, 

general counsel of the Congress of Racial Equality; Howard 

Squadron, New York City; and Constance Baker Motley and Michael 

Meltsner of the Fund's New York City headquarters. 

- 30 =

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Federal Court Allows 'Rights Action at World's Fair Site

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