Justice Black Asked to Issue Injunction Against Mississippi Freedom Rider Prosecutions

Press Release
December 6, 1961

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Justice Black Asked to Issue Injunction Against Mississippi Freedom Rider Prosecutions, 1961. 2270d9b7-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b9005a32-e99f-40d2-aa68-80ac3231b71c/justice-black-asked-to-issue-injunction-against-mississippi-freedom-rider-prosecutions. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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    PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TOCOLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEWYORK19,N.Y. ¢ JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
President General Counsel Associate Counsel 

Ss 

JUSTICE BLACK ASKED TO ISSUE INJUNCTION 

AGAINST MISSISSIPPI FREEDOM RIDER PROSECUTIONS 

December 6, 1961 

Washington, D. C. = NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys 

appealed to U. S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black this morning in 

an effort to stop Mississippi prosecutions of Freedom Riders arrested 

in Jackson, Miss. on "disorderly conduct charges." 

tecay's action requests a temporary injunction pending in appeal to 

fuli Supreme Court from a Nov. 17 decision of a three~judge dis- 

trict court in the Southern District of Mississippi which ruled 

2-to-1 that it should not intervene “until the State courts have 

decided the full meaning of their respective [disorderly condu ] 
statutes." 

The suit, filed June 9, in Jackson on behalf of Negro plaintiffs 

and others similarly situated, asked for an injunction on the basis 

that enforcement of segregation in transportation facilities is clearly 

unconstitutional according to prior federal court decisions. 

Judge Richard T. Rives, the dissenting member of the District Court 

penel, charged the Majority Judges, both Mississippians, with "unrea- 

sonable delay" in rendering their Nov. 17 decision. 

Judge Rives wrote that he was unable to find "a bona fide breach of 

the peace issue" in the case, indicating that he would have enjoined 

she state prosecutions. 

The Legel Defense Fund motion to Justice Black points out that more 

than 300 Freedom Riders have been arrested in Jackson since last May 

under disorderly conduct or breach of the peace statutes. All of those 

arrested were convicted by the City Court of Jackson, fined $200 and 

given sentences ranging from 60 days to four months in the County 

jaii. All except two have appealed their convictions to the Hinds 

County Court. 



2oe 

The motion also charges that the policy of Jackson officials of 

trying two persons each day, 5 days a week, would mean all would not 

be tried until May 12, 1962, at considerable expense to the defendants. 

Each defendant must post $1,000 bond on appeal, and incur the addi- 

tional expense of returning to Jackson for trial. An attempt to have 

the cases tried on a test case basis was turned down by Jackson 

officials. 

NAACP Legal Defense attorneys are R. Jess Brown of Vicksburg, 

Miss., Jack Greenberg, Constance Baker Motley, Derrick Bell, Jr., and 

James M. Nabrit, III of New York City.

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Justice Black Asked to Issue Injunction Against Mississippi Freedom Rider Prosecutions

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