Motley Statement at Press Conf. on 1st Suit to Enforce Civil Rights Act

    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

ote N.Y. 10019 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers 
Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg 
(saiclate Crimes! 

Con: Baker Motley 

TEXT OF STATEMENT BY CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
ASSOCIATE COUNSEL, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, 
GAMMON BUILDING, INTERDENOMINAT IONAL 
THEOLOGICAL CENTER, 653 BECKWITH STREET 
SOUTHWEST, ATLANTA, GEORGIA 
JULY 9, 1964 3215 PM 

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, in behalf of three local 

clergymen, today filed the nation's first suit to enforce Title 

Two of the new civil rights 

This suit is also the 

filed in hard core southern 

in Alabama. 

A survey yesterday of 

Legal Defense Fund, in deep 

act. 

first of a series of suits to be 

states. Two such suits are imminent 

the 120 cooperating attorneys of the 

south and border states, indicates 

that compliance has been, for the most part, good. 

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is prepared to move quickly 

in any community where there is interference with or violation 

of Negro citizens’ rights secured by the bill. 

In the Atlanta suit, George S. Willis Jr., Woodrow T. 

Lewis and Albert L. Dunn, all clergymen and students at the 

Interdenominational Theological Center here, have asked the 

U.S. District Court for an injunction against discriminatory 

practices of Lester Maddox and the Pickrick Restaurant. 

The plaintiffs, acting on behalf of themselves and other 

Negro citizens of Atlanta, were "denied and deprived" service 

at the Pickrick on Friday, July 3rd. 

Mr. Maddox, his pistol and his ax handles are a matter of 

public record, 

The complaint states that discrimination against Negroes 

at the Pickrick is in violation of plaintiffs' rights to full 

and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges. 

advantages and accommodations of places of public accommodation 

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

(more) 



/ Statement by Constance Baker Motley ~-2- July 9, 1964 

without discrimination and segregation on grounds of race or 

color" as secured by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitu- 

tion of the United States, section 1; the Commerce Clause, 

Article 1, section 8, clause 3 of the Constitution of the United 

States; and Title Two of the act known as "The Civil Rights Act 

of 1964." 

The Pickrick restaurant serves and offers to serve inter- 

state travelers, Its operations affect travel, trade, traffic, 

commerce and transportation between and through the several 

states. A substantial portion of the food it serves moves in 

commerce, 

Plaintiffs Willis,Lewis and Dunn "were denied and deprived 

service at the Pickrick because of the defendants' well- 

established and maintained policy, practice and custom and 

usage of refusing to serve Negroes." 

= 60 -< 

EDITOR'S NOTE: NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys handling 

this case are William H. Alexander of Atlanta 

and Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley and 

Michael Meltsner of the Fund's New York City 

headquarters.