Correspondence from Lee to Hankins
Correspondence
July 1, 1991

2 pages
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Press Releases, Volume 6. LDF Requests 3-Judge Court for SCLC President (Abernathy) Riot Charge, 1969. 15f2fa8e-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/cf8c5022-6bbe-4c66-ab3e-5dd4ecea235c/ldf-requests-3-judge-court-for-sclc-president-abernathy-riot-charge. Accessed July 30, 2025.
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3% June 24, 1969 GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA--The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. asked the U.S. District Court here today for the appoint- ment of a three-judge court to rule against the riot charge faced by Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, SCLC president and leader of the Charleston hospital strike. A three-judge court is necessary in Rev. Abernathy's case because under South Carolina law rioting is a statutory and common law offense. LDF also asked today that Rev. Abernathy be released either without bail or with nominal bail. Attorneys for the Legal Defense Fund, Melvyn Zarr and Fred Moore, argued that South Carolina's riot law is unconstitutional and that Rev. Abernathy's arrest, prosecution and high bail ($50,000) were designed to stifle civil rights advocacy in Charleston. High bail, the attorneys said, is being used as a repressive device to stop Rev. Abernathy from leading peaceful civil rights de- monstrations and to frighten off citizens of Charleston from joining the hospital workers' cause. =30%