Justice Black Denies Stay in Rights Act Enforcement

Press Release
August 15, 1964

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  • Press Releases, Volume 1. Justice Black Denies Stay in Rights Act Enforcement, 1964. 2cda4230-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ada88e72-4971-45e3-91b7-653fc6fb94ee/justice-black-denies-stay-in-rights-act-enforcement. Accessed August 19, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

i De. Allan Kiught Chabuars FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Director-Counsel 

ack Greenberg August 15, 1964 
Cou 

Constance Baker Motley 

JUSTICE BLACK DENIES STAY 
IN RIGHTS ACT ENFORCEMENT 

Atlantans Must Integrate or Close 

Washington, D.C.--Justice Hugo L, Black this week (August 10) 
refused to issue an injunction that would have delayed enforce- 
ment of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

Seeking the order were Lester Maddox, owner of Atlanta's 
Pickrick Restaurant, and Moreton Rolleston Jr., owner of the 
Heart of Atlanta motel. NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys © 
handled the suit against Mr. Maddox, while the U.S. Department 
of Justice was responsible in the companion case. 

The suit against Mr. Maddox was the nation's first court 
test seeking enforcement of Title Two of the new legislation. 

It was filed by Fund Cooperating Attorney William Alexander 
and argued by Jack Greenberg, director counsel and Constance 
Baker Motley, associate counsel. 

Mr. Rolleston, who filed suit testing the public accom- 
modations section of the new law the day President Johnson 
signed it, said he would comply with Justice Black's order. 

But, Mr. Maddox, who chased three Negroes from his prem- 
ises at gun point, said his establishment would never inte- 
grate, 

Director-counsel Greenberg said the Legal Defense Fund is 
prepared to respond to Mr. Maddox's appeal when it comes before 
the Supreme Court in the fall. Justice Black urged that the 
cases be expedited so that they be decided soon after the Court 
reconvenes, 

The segregationists had sought to nullify the effect of a 
three-judge court's July 22nd ruling in which the Fund and the 
Justice Department were upheld in their contention that the 
public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act are 
constitutional. 

In another development, the Legal Defense Fund also won its 
second suit testing the new law last week, when a federal court 
in Jacksonville ordered the integration of 17 St. Augustine, Fla 
motels and restaurants. The court also told the Ku Klux Klan 
and other extremist groups to refrain from interference with the 
peaceful enjoyment of legal rights. 

Currently,several Legal Defense Fund suits are underway and 
in preparation in numerous localities throughout the south. Most 
of them follow the pattern of the St. A stine case, where 
white racists threatened businessmen who integrated their estab- 
lishments,with reprisals, 

2308S 

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

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