Correspondence from Lee to Hankins

Correspondence
July 1, 1991

Correspondence from Lee to Hankins preview

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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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. 

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