Argument on the first litigation to reach the United States Supreme Court embracing…

    ‘PRESS RELEASE® rd 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. «© JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS > THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

NEt YORK, Oct. 6.-- Argument on the first litigation to reach 

the United States Supreme Court embracing the basic issues in the 

cases involving students arrested in sit-in protest demonstrations, is 

scheduled to be heard Tuesday, October ll, 

The case involves a Howard University law student who was arrested 

and convicted for refusing to leave an interstate bus terminal 

restaurant when he was ordered out by the management. 

The case was filed with the U. S. Supreme Court on September 15, 

1959, in behalf of Bruce Boynton. He was arrested in December, 1958, 

at the Trailways Bus Terminal in Richmond, Va. while en route from 

Washington, D. C. to his home in Selma, Ala. 

Boynton was convicted in the Richmond Police Court and fined 

$10.00, The conviction was twice appealed but upheld by the city and 

state courts. 

Thurgood Marshall, Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund said that while the Boynton case is not one which 

involves the world famous outbreak of student sit-in demonstrations, 

the decision could very well resolve the legality of most sit-in 

activities. 

"The issue in the Boynton case is whether an interstate passenger 

can be convicted for refusing to leave a restaurant which is obliged 

to serve interstate travelers," Marshall explained. 

Boynton has been supported by the United States Solicitor General 

in a brief filed as a friend of the court. 

Mr, Marshall pointed out that the issue in most of the sit-in 

cases now pending before the various courts is whether the police can 

enforce segregation in privately owned restaurants, lunch counters and 

other places open to tie general public. 

"More than 1,600 ctudents, white as well as Negro, have been 

arrested in 12 southern states," Marshall declared, “The majority of 

the cases are in the lower courts while e few have reached appeals in 

other courts." 



i & @ 

Mr. Marshall disclosed that the amount of the fines leveled 

against the students far exceeds $50,000; bond money, he said, is well 

over $100,000. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys responsible for taking the 

Boynton case to the Supreme Court are Mr. Marshall, Constance Baker 

Motley and Jack Greenberg, all of New York City. Local counsel in the 

case are Martin A. Martin and Clarence Newsome, both of Richmond, Va. 

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10/6/60