Zarr Statement on Abernathy Bond and Federal Court Motion

Lawler v. Alexander Brief of Appellee preview

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at

Impact area
- Economic Justice
Topic
- Economic Justice
Collection
- Brief Collection
Taxonomy
Identifier
- aeba5cb6-ba9a-ee11-be36-6045bdeb8873

Cite this item

Press Releases, Volume 6. Zarr Statement on Abernathy Bond and Federal Court Motion, 1969. 38f2fa8e-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/db13f4c9-2371-41ae-b7a1-a85af1c3ae61/zarr-statement-on-abernathy-bond-and-federal-court-motion. Accessed August 19, 2025.

Copied!

    Statement by LDF attorney Melvyn Zarr to be delivered tonight on 

television in Charleston, South Carolina. 

June 26, 1969 

Yesterday the Circuit Solicitor appeared on this channel and stated 

that he had indicated to me and another attorney representing Rev. 

Ralph David Abernathy that--if we would make a motion in state court 

to reduce Rev. Abernathy's bond to $5000--he would not oppose it. 

The Solicitor's account is correct--as far as it goes. But he omitted 

something very important. My explanation to him of why, at this time, 

we insist upon proceeding in federal court on our motion there to 

release Rev. Abernathy without bond on the riot charge. 

The explanation is simply this. In Charleston, $5000 is a bond 

traditionally reserved for very serious offenses. Accused rapists 

and killers have been released on $5000 bond in Charleston. 

We could not and cannot agree to that sum because this riot charge 

against Reverend Abernathy and the three others is spurious, not 

serious. It was fabricated by prosecuting authorities solely to 

discredit SCLC's non-violent protest movement. 

That is why we are asking the federal court to dismiss the charges. 

And that is also why we refuse to treat Rev. Abernathy's bail as 

a routine matter involving a serious criminal offense, and instead 

intend to press in federal court on Monday for his release without 

bond on this spurious charge. 

Reverend Abernathy's non-violent reputation is at stake here--and 

that is what we intend to vindicate in federal court. 

=30=

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Lawler v. Alexander Brief of Appellee

Impact area

Topic

Collection

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in