Letter to the President from Greenberg and Abernathy Statement to Greenberg on Abernathy's Arrest and Trial

Press Release
May 2, 1969

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Letter to the President from Greenberg and Abernathy Statement to Greenberg on Abernathy's Arrest and Trial preview

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- 8a0ca576-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. A sweeping federal suit was filled today in Jackson, Miss., by the NAACP…, 1961. 7fb7f5d5-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/a3a44914-d1d9-4f1b-9dd7-d1bcc9468c17/a-sweeping-federal-suit-was-filled-today-in-jackson-miss-by-the-naacp. Accessed August 19, 2025.

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    - PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
1O COLUMBUS CIRCLE »+ NEW YORK 19,N.Y. «© JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS Ce THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

June 9, 1961 

NEW YORK - A sweeping federal suit was filed today in Jackson, 

Miss., by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which supports 

theefforts of "Freedom Riders" currently challenging racial segrega- 

tion in Mississippi. 

The suit asks for an injunction against Mississippi officials 

who are currently enforcing racial segregation of dining, waiting and 

rest room facilities in bus, railroad and airline terminals in Jackson, 

on the basis that such segregation is unconstitutional. 

Today's action was filed by NAACP Legal Defense attorney 

Constance Baker Motley in the U. S. District Court for the Southern 

District of Mississippi, Jackson, Division. 

The Jackson suit is similar to an earlier suit filed by the NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund in the federal district court at Montgomery, Ala., 

on May 25. Today's action is more inclusive, however, in that it 

covers railroad and airline terminals, as well as bus terminals. 

Segregation in intrastate and interstate travel in Mississippi is 

authorized by a series of state statutes, and in Jackson, by a city 

ordinance adopted in 1956. 

The NAACP Legal Defense complaint charges that such segregation 

subjects Negro citizens to "daily public inconveniences, harassment, 

and embarrassment, and violates rights secured...by the due process 

and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment...." 

The complaint also asserts that "plaintiffs' rights are being 

continually denied by harassment by state officials and police...of 

the city of Jackson, in the form of arrests, fines, and imprisonment," 

and seeks to enjoin defendants from such enforcement of racial 

segregation. 



=oe 

The plaintiffs named in today's action are Samuel Bailey, Joseph 

Broadwater and Burnett L. Jacob, all Negro citizens ef Jackson. But 

the suit is a "class" action, meaning that the relief sought applies 

to other Negro citizens "similarly situated." 

Defendants cited are Mississippi Attorney General Joe T. 

Patterson; the City of Jackson, Miss., a Municipal Corporation; 

Jackson Mayor Allen C. Thompson; Jackson City Commissioners Douglas 

L. Lucky and Thomas B. Marshall; Jackson Chief of Police W. Ds 

Rayfield; Continental Southern Lines, Inc.; Southern Greyhound Lines, 

a division of Greyhound Corporation; Illinois Central Railroad, Inc.; 

Jackson City Lines, Inc.; and Cicero Carr at Jackson Municipal 

Airport. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys representing the plaintiffs 

are R. Jess Brown of Vicksburg, Miss., and Thurgood Marshall and 

Constance Baker Motley of New York City. 

=<9025

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Letter to the President from Greenberg and Abernathy Statement to Greenberg on Abernathy's Arrest and Trial

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