Defense Fund Attorneys Secure Quick Relief for Shuttlesworth
Press Release
March 13, 1964

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Defense Fund Attorneys Secure Quick Relief for Shuttlesworth, 1964. a657ac9b-bd92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/aa92e49b-249b-487a-8494-71583b897403/defense-fund-attorneys-secure-quick-relief-for-shuttlesworth. Accessed July 11, 2025.
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PRESS RELEASE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE * NEW YORK, N. Y. 10019 - JUdson 6-8397 DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG . CONSTANCE President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel ne ee Ss DEFENSE FUND ATTORNEYS SECURE QUICK RELIEF FOR SHUTTLESWORTH Supreme Court Acts Within 11 Days March 13, 1964 WASHINGTON,D.C.--The U,S, Supreme Court this week reversed an Ala- bama conviction against Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Birmingham integra- tion leader, The high court ruled within 11 days after the oral argument presented before it by Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Rev. Shuttlesworth faced 180 days in jail and a $100 fine for allegedly interfering with Birmingham police during the Freedom Rides of May 1961. The Justices delivered their swift ruling in three terse lines. This case grew out of an incident in the Greyhound bus station in Birmingham on May 17, 1961 when Rev, Shuttlesworth accompanied a group of freedom riders to the terminal, All had tickets to Montgomery and were slated for a 3 o'clock departure, However, they were forced to wait for a later bus be- cause the driver of the 3 pm bus refused to accommodate them. The Birmingham police then appeared to take the riders into "protective custody." Rev, Shuttlesworth is reported to have in- quired as to what was taking place. He was advised that such was not his concern, However, Rev. Shuttlesworth insisted on accompanying the riders to the local jail and was arrested. He was the only one of the grap against whom charges were pressed, Attorney Greenberg argued to the U.S, Supreme Court that the Alabama courts had denied Rev. Shuttlesworth due process of law on several grounds, The Supreme Court accepted the argument that the Alabama courts improperly affirmed Rev. Shuttlesworth's conviction on appeal on the theory that he assaulted an officer, although he had not been accused of this in the trial court, The Supreme Court rejected the city's argument that Rev. Shuttlesworth's appeal should fail because his lawyers filed a peti- tion in the Alabama Supreme Court on the wrong size paper, Rev. Shuttlesworth was represented by attorneys Peter A, Hall and Orzell Billingsley of Birmingham in the state courts. The Legal Defense Fund lawyers James M. Nabrit, III, Michael Meltzner and George B. Smith, all of New York, were listed as of counsel on the brief in the U.S, Supreme Court, - 30 -