Florida Turnpike Restaurants Ordered to Desegregate in Quick Ruling
Press Release
March 23, 1962

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Florida Turnpike Restaurants Ordered to Desegregate in Quick Ruling, 1962. c5323ff4-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/9c1a796b-aa0b-4daf-ab66-dcc3b285807d/florida-turnpike-restaurants-ordered-to-desegregate-in-quick-ruling. Accessed July 06, 2025.
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PRESS RELEASE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 1O COLUMBUS CIRCLE *+ NEW YORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG President CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY Director-Counsel Associate Counsel S25 March 23, 1962 FLORIDA TURNPIKE RESTAURANTS ORDERED TO DESEGREGATE IN QUICK RULING NEW YORK - Turnpike restaurants on Florida's Sunshine State Parkway were ordeted to desegregate their facilities this week by District Judge David W. Dyer. Judge Dyer's ruling, considered unusually prompt and forth- right, became effective on March 22. He ruled that the segregation policy of the Hot Shoppes, Inc., which are licensed by the Florida Turnpike Authority, "is violative of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” The action had been brought March 1, by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on behaif of five Negro citizens, Leerue McDuffie, John E. King, Walter Holmes, Sr., Albert Myers and George Sims. The case was argued in the Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida on March 12. In his ruling, Judge Dyer enjoined the Turnpike Authority from "making or requiring others to make any distinction based upon color in regard to service to patrons at its leased restaurant facil- ities, restrooms, and drinking fountains." This was the first Turnpike restaurant case brought by Defense Fund attorneys. G. E, Graves, Jr., of Miami, Fla., Thomas J. Reddick, Jr. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., F. Malcolm Cunningham and Holland Smith of West Palm Beach, Fla., and Jack Greenberg, Derrick A. Bell, Jr., and Michael Meltsner of New York City, represented the Negro plaintiffs. ---0---