Florida Turnpike Restaurants Ordered to Desegregate in Quick Ruling

Press Release
March 23, 1962

Florida Turnpike Restaurants Ordered to Desegregate in Quick Ruling preview

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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. 

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