Suit Asks Rights Act Compliance by S. Carolina Restaurant Chain
Press Release
December 29, 1964
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Press Releases, Volume 2. Suit Asks Rights Act Compliance by S. Carolina Restaurant Chain, 1964. 84cc8d8a-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/bbb6e904-7532-49bf-8c91-d5ab67888776/suit-asks-rights-act-compliance-by-s-carolina-restaurant-chain. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle «
New York, N.Y. 10019
JUdson 6-8397
NAACP 2
Legal Defense and Educational Fund
PRESS RELEASE
President
Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers i o RELEASE
Director-Counsel
Jack Greenberg December 29, 1964
Associate Counsel
Constance Baker Motley
SUIT ASKS RIGHTS ACT COMPLIANCE
BY S. CAROLINA RESTAURANT CHAIN
COLUMBIA, S.C,---The first South Carolina suit seeking compliance
by a restaurant with the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
was filed in Federal District Court here last week by attorneys of
the NAACP Legal Defense Fund,
Hit in the suit was Piggie Park Enterprises, which operates
several restaurants in the Columbia area and in other cities
throughout the state.
Legal Defense Fund attorneys are currently engaged in 17 suits
in seven Southern states to enforce the Civil Rights Act.
In the only previous South Carolina court action under the new
law, Legal Defense Fund lawyers are seeking an order that would end
discrimination in Orangeburg movie theaters.
The suit against the Piggie Park restaurant chain was brought
after Negroes had been refused service at the downtown Columbia
branch. Other Negroes represented in the suit by the Legal Defense
Fund were told at two Piggie Park drive-ins that they could buy food
but could not eat on the premises.
» In their complaint, the Legal Defense Fund lawyers asserted
that a Federal action was necessary to secure enforcement, since
neither South Carolina nor the city of Columbia has a law
prohibiting discrimination in places of public accommodation.
Filing the Legal Defense Fund suit were Director-Counsel,
Jack Greenberg of New York, and Matthew J. Perry, Lincoln C, Jenkins,
Jz Sadttemchi ll P, Pride II, all of Columbia.
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Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 S~ &