Greenberg Statement on Court Declaring Civil Rights Act Constitutional and on Sit-In Cases

Press Release
December 14, 1964

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Press Releases, Volume 2. Greenberg Statement on Court Declaring Civil Rights Act Constitutional and on Sit-In Cases, 1964. 53209384-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/2965048d-ac93-4e6a-a43e-2370473dfb33/greenberg-statement-on-court-declaring-civil-rights-act-constitutional-and-on-sit-in-cases. Accessed December 04, 2025.

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10 Columbus Circle
New York, N.Y. 10019
JUdson 6-8397

NAACP

ee . Ty Legal Defense and Educational Fund
PRESS RELEASE Statement by Jack Greenberg

x Director-Counsel
preteens NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers
Director Counsel

Jack Greenberg
Associate Counsel

Constance Baker Motley

Monday, December 14, 1964

The court's holding that the Civil Rights Act is constitutional

was anticipated and directly supports a score of cases we now have or

are about to file to enforce it. But beyond this the Court also made

a@ historic decision with regard to sit-ins which occurred before there

Act was passed. The court held that a Negro who peacefully sought

service at a lunch counter before the passage of the Civil Rights Act

cannot now be sent to jail.

In 1960 when teins began, Thurgood Marshall pledged that

the Legal Defense Fund would defend every non-violent demonstrator.

We have kept that pledge and now represent more than 13,000 persons

arrested for various types of racial demonstrations including sit-ins,

freedom rides, peaceful parades and so forth. Approximately 3,000 such

sit-in cases are now pending in various courts all over the South. We

have now launched a massive mop-up operation to secure the release of

all these defendants. We plan to call upon the Community Relations

Service which was set up by the new Civil Rights Act and is headed by

Governor Leroy Collins to use its good offices to persuade local

prosecutors to drop these prosecutions and spare us the expense and

labor of further litigation. But when cases cannot be settled by agree-

ment we are ready to proceed in court to defend these young people whose

courage awakened the conscience of the nation and led to passage of

the Act.

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

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Greenberg Statement on Court Declaring Civil Rights Act Constitutional and on Sit-In Cases

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