Supreme Court Gives Negroes Access to Public Facilities Made with Federal, State and Local Cash

Press Release
December 16, 1966

Cite this item

Supreme Court Gives Negroes Access to Public Facilities Made with Federal, State and Local Cash preview

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
- e7168269-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 4. Supreme Court Gives Negroes Access to Public Facilities Made with Federal, State and Local Cash, 1966. e7168269-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/9139bf3a-9622-4bf3-bf2e-6da3a7b9a1fb/supreme-court-gives-negroes-access-to-public-facilities-made-with-federal-state-and-local-cash. Accessed December 04, 2025.

Copied!

    he 

President 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers 
PRESS RELEASE Director-Couasel 

egal efense lund : Sarees 
hirector, Public Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. “Wea DeVore. Ie 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

FOR RELEASE 
FRIDAY 
December 16, 1966 

SUPREME CCURT GIVES NEGROES ACCESS 
TO PUBLIC FACILITIES MADE WITH 

FEDERAL, STATE & LOCAL CASH 

WASHINGTON---The U. S. Supreme Court this week ruled that Mississippi 
cannot deny Negroes the use the public facilities constructed with 
public funds, 

Ruling in favor of Dr. Gilbert Mason and other Biloxi, Mississippi 
Negroes, the high court settled an issue arising out of an attack on a 
small group of Negroes by hundreds of whites in June of 1963, 

The case was won by attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc., (LDF). 

Biloxi Negroes, under Dr. Mason's leadership, had sought--without 
success~--to use the 24-mile beach along Mississippi's southern shore. 

After three years of fruitless litigation, 29 persons attempted 
to utilize the beach, one of the longest man-made beaches in the world, 
on Sunday, June 23, 1963, 

An angry crowd of some 2,900 whites stood by menacingly as police 
officers ordered the Negroes away from the beach, The Negroes declined 
to go and were arrested, 

Other Negroes were beaten by the whites. 

The agent of the asserted owner of the beach then appeared and 
ordered the Negroes to vacate. He then called the police. 

Mississippi police officials were unable to prevent the Negroes! 
cars from being burned and overturned. They were also unable to pre- 
veat the police van, in which the Negro petitioners were traveling to 
Seil, from being tilted, causing minor injuries. 

LDF attorneys argued in their brief that the Biloxi beach has be- 
come entwined with governmental programs and policies and taken on a 
governmental character. 

Hence, basing criminal convictions on failure to obey purely 
racial limitations is precluded, 

LDF attorneys further pointed out that the state and local govern- 
ments are involved in protecting the beach from Negroes as well as fr¢ 
tides and litter. 

Mississippi has therefore, LDF attorneys concluded, departed frem 
a policy of strict neutrality in matters of private discrimination, 

That state, they say, has in effect involved itself in active bias 
subject to the 14th Amendment. 

LDF attorneys in this case were Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel, 
James M, Nabri if, and Melvyn Zarr of New York City, and R. Jess 
Brown of Jackson, Mississippi. 

25

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 Gives Negroes Access to Public Facilities Made with Federal, State and Local Cash

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in