Defense Fund Attorneys Win St. Augustine, FLA. Victory
Press Release
August 8, 1964
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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Defense Fund Attorneys Win St. Augustine, FLA. Victory, 1964. 05cdeb79-bd92-ee11-be37-6045bddb811f. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/d547f2b7-fd1b-4598-99a6-42ba4aba0759/defense-fund-attorneys-win-st-augustine-fla-victory. Accessed November 20, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle
New York, N.Y. 10019
JUdson 6-8397
NAACP
Legal Defense and Educational Fund
PRESS RELEASE
President
Dr. Allan Knight Chaimers August 8, 1964
Director-Counsel
Jacl enberg
anal
ance Baker Motley
DEFENSE FUND ATTORNEYS WIN
ST. AUGUSTINE,FLA. VICTORY
Jacksonville, Fla.--A federal judge yesterday ordered 17 St,
Augustine, Fla. motels and restaurants to start serving Negroes
this weekend and enjoined segregationists from interfering with
either the white owners or their Negro patrons.
Acting on behalf of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference and local Negroes, attorneys of the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund won their second test of the 1964 Civil Rights
Act. The lawyers challenged the new pattern of resistance to
the historic law,
This pattern crops up when white segregationists have
attacked Negro customers, and sometimes the white owners, when
the stores, motels and other public facilities have peacefully
integrated,
Most of the restaurants included in the order by Jugge
Bryan Simpson had initially complied with the public accom-
modations section of the new law, but had tesegregated under
pressure from segregationists,
NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys Leroy D, Clark, of the
Fund's New York headquarters, and cooperating lawyer Tobias
Simon of Miami, Fla. handled the case.
An attorney for most of the white extremist groups named
in the suit consented to the order barring interference with
the act. However, the Ku Klux Klan, the U.S.Klans, Inc., and
the National States Rights Party were not party to the agree-
ment to stop interfering.
(more)
Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 E> @
Defense Fund Attorneys Win =2- August 8, 1964
St. Augustine,Fla. Victory
Attorney Clark said this week that these groups will
remain defendants, and that the Legal Defense Fund will re-
quest a further hearing should they attempt to stop desegre-
gation at the motels and restaurants.
But the major group of segregationists, Halstead (Hoss)
Manucy's Ancient City Hunting Club, was specifically forbidden
from threatening, intimidating, or coercing any of the white
Mamagers or Negroes seeking service, Attorney Clark reported.
The first Civil Rights Act test case won by the Legal
Defense Fund -- the nation's first case to seek enforcement
of the bill -- came when a three judge feceral court in
Atlanta, Ala. issued a temporary injunction desegregating the
Pickrick restaurant.
Pickrick owner Lester Maddox drove off three Negro cus-
tomers at gun point when they sought service,
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