Legal Defense Fund Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Upset Conviction of Rev. Shuttlesworth

Press Release
August 24, 1964

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Legal Defense Fund Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Upset Conviction of Rev. Shuttlesworth preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 1. Legal Defense Fund Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Upset Conviction of Rev. Shuttlesworth, 1964. db504e36-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b0c4988f-19a6-483c-8ec0-9fb5ae5670e3/legal-defense-fund-asks-us-supreme-court-to-upset-conviction-of-rev-shuttlesworth. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

Oe Atlan Knight Chaimers 

Director-Counsel 
eenberg FOR MONDAY, AM PAPERS 

August 24, 1964 
Baker Motley 

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND ASKS U.S. SUPREME COURT 
TO UPSET CONVICTION OF REV. SHUTTLESWORTH 

Washington, D.C,--The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
today (Sunday, August 23rd) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to re- 
view an Alabama conviction of civil rights leader Rev. Fred L. 
Shuttlesworth. 

The conviction, upheld throughout the Alabama state courts, 
was for loitering and obstructing a sidewalk, and for refusing 
to obey a Birmingham police officer. 

Today's appeal by the Defense Fund represents the seventh 
legal step in this defense of Rev. Shuttlesworth, who was ar- 
rested April 4, 1962 and sentenced in a Birmingham City Court 
to pay a $100 fine and to 180 days at hard labor. 

Fund Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, joined in the appeal 
by Norman Amaker of the Fund's New York headquarters and by 
Peter A, Hall and Orzell Billingsley, Jr., Fund cooperating 
attorneys of Birmingham, asserted that there was no evidence 
in support of the charge. 

He further argued that the ordinances which Rev. Shuttles- 
worth allegedly violated are, as applied to his conduct, so 
vague as to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. 

The Fund attorneys also pointed out in their petition that 
Rev. Shuttlesworth has been arrested by the Birmingham police 
on more than ten charges in the past six years. 

On March 10th of this year, the Supreme Court upheld é 
Defense Fund contentions in reversing a 1961 conviction 
the civil rights leader for alleged interference with the 
police during a Freedom Ride, 

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E On two previous occasions in the past years, the nation's 
highest court had also upset convictions of Rev. Shuttlesworth 
growing out of his active leadership of civil rights-activi- 
ties in Birmingham. 

When the Supreme Court reconvenes in the fall, it will 
consider Defense Fund arguments in five other cases currently 
being prepared, as well as whether to review Rev. Shuttles- 
worth's conviction. 

= S0r= 

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

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