U.S. Supreme Court Upsets Sit in Convictions of 77

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~ New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 7 
President \ 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers V June 24, 1964 
Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg 
Associate Counsel 

Constance Baker Motley 

U.S. SUPREME COURT UPSETS 
SIT IN CONVICTIONS OF 77 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The convictions of 77 peaceful sit-in dem- 

onstrators were voided here this week by the U.S. Supreme 

Court, ruling on ten cases originating in five southern 

states, 

The high court based its decisions on various grounds in 

acting on the appeals in ten separate cases, seven of them 

brought by Legal Defense Fund lawyers. Fund attorneys as- 

sisted in the other three. 

It was the fourth consecutive year that Defense Fund ac- 

tions led to legal victories in the Supreme Court vindicating 

the efforts of Negroes to obtain non-discriminatory service 

in facilities open to the public. 

According to Fund Director-Counsel Jack Grenberg, this 

week's decisions will lead to the voiding of hundreds of sit- 

in convictions now pending on appeal. The Civil Rights Act 

of 1964 will guarantee service in places of public accommo- 

dations in the future, Mr. Greenberg added. 

Among the grounds for its decisions in upsetting the sit-in 

convictions, the high court held: 

*that Maryland courts should re-examine one case in light 

of subsequent passage of state public accommodations laws; 

*that South Carolina students had no fair warning that the 

trespass law applied to failure to leave upon request; 

*that there was no evidence, in the case of five other South 

Carolina students, of breach of the peace; 

*that Florida's policy of segregation was embodied in a 

rule requiring restaurants to have separate washrooms, 

(more) 

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



U.S. Supreme Court Upsets -2- June 24, 1964 
Sit-in Convictions of 77 

The Supreme Court also agreed to hear next term Legal 

Defense Fund appeals on behalf of 14 more sit-in defendants 

from South Carolina and Arkansas. 

This week's court actions were the last until the nine 

justices return in the fall. In addition to securing vic- 

tories in the sit-in decisions, Legal Defense Fund lawyers 

won numerous historic cases in the 1963-64 term just ended. 

These include: 

*a ruling that school desegregation in the south must pro- 

ceed at a faster rate, and that Atlanta's grade-a-year and 

pupil-assignment plans are insufficient; 

*a ruling that Negroes are entitled to courteous treatment 

in southern courtrooms, and may not be addressed by their 

first names; 

*an affirmation of the principle that criminal convictions 

by juries from which Negroes have been sytematically ex- 

cluded are unconstitutional; 

*a refusal to review a lower court decision outlawing 

discrimination against Negro physicians and patients in 

publicly supported hospitals; 

*a judgment reversing the convictions of 438 Negro students 

arrested while peacefully demonstrating against discrimi- 

nation in Orangeburg and Rock Hill, S.C. 

In all, the Legal Defense Fund took part in 26 acticns in 

the Supreme Court this term, more than any other organization 

except the U.S. Department of Justice. 

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