Supreme Court to Hear Tennessee Rights Case

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
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- 4c9e20bb-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 2. Supreme Court to Hear Tennessee Rights Case, 1965. 4c9e20bb-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/6fac4469-efbd-41f9-a8fc-868694308115/supreme-court-to-hear-tennessee-rights-case. Accessed December 04, 2025.

Copied!

    PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE * NEW YORK, N. Y. 10019 © JUdson 6-8397 

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

For Further Information FOR RELEASE es 
call Jesse DeVore, Director Monday 
Public Information JU 6-8397 or March 8, 1965 
RI 9-8487 (212) 

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR 
TENNESSEE ‘RIGHTS CASE 

WASHINGTON=-The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument here today 

asserting that a group of Nashville, Tenn, Negro college students 

“should be cleared of charges stemming from an attempted sit-in of 

October 12, 1962. 

The students wre stopped at the door of Burrus and Webber Caf- 

; eteria by a doorman. They waited for 20 minutes in the vestibule 
= 

until they were arrested. is 

ee Adames Nabrit, III, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued that 

enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, subsequent to lower 

court convictions, but while they were still under direct review, 

is grounds for outright dismissal of the case or, return to the 

state courts for reconsideration in light of the new legislation. 

Attorney Nabrit pointed our that discrimination was permitted 

under Tennessee law at the time of the convictions and the students, 

"were prosecuted under a presentment that characterized their 

integration movement as an unlawful conspiracy. 

"Thus Tennessee," Attorney Nabrit maintained, "adopted the 
posture of supporting and enforcing segregationist policies. 

"This denied the students equal protection of the laws in 
violation of the 14th Amendment." 

He added that the convictions denied due process of law in that 
the record of the case does not contain any evidence of essential 
elements of the crime charged---unlawful conspiracy. 

“All the evidence shows," Mr, Nabrit continued, “that peti- 
tioners (students) went to a cafeteria to attempt to obtain service, 
were barred from entrance after they had gone into a small vestibule 
and that the resulting congestion made it inconvenient for other 
patrons.” 

Legal Defense Fund Attorney Nabrit asserted that the trial 
judge instructed the jury that the students were charged with 
violating a law--when no such charge was in the indictment, 

Moreover, the law was civil, not criminal. 
The Supreme Court of Tennessee admitted the error of the trial 

judge but dismissed it as insubstantial. 
Mr, Nabrit was joined by Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of 

the Legal Defense Fund. 
Terinessee cooperating attorneys of the Legal Defense Fund 

include Avon N. Williams, Jr. and Z, Alexander Looby. Assistant 
Counsel, Charles S. Ralston of the Fund's New York City head- 

quarters was of counsel. : 

«30-

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.

Supreme Court to Hear Tennessee Rights Case

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in