Convicted College Students Seek Supreme Court Review of FLA Bus Law

    PRESS RELEASE @ ® 

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

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS oa 
President 

THURGOOD MARSHALL 
Director-Counsel 

February 1h, 1958 
CONVICTED COLLEGE STUDENTS SEEK 

SUPREME COURT REVIGW OF FLA. BUS LAW 

WASH,, D.C., Feb. 13.--The U. S. Supreme Court was asked today 

to review the conviction of three college youths for violating a 

Tallahassee, Fla. bus seating ordinance, The Ordinance was enactec 

by the City Commission in January 1957 following a boycott of the 

local transportation system by Negroes protesting against segregatec 

seating. 

The Tallahassee ordinance, in effect, empowers the bus company 

to enforce segregated seating under the guise of insuring "an equal 

distribution throughout its buses of the weight of the passengers 

being transported" and "the maximum health and safety of the passer 

gers being transported by it to the end that...peace, tranquility 

and good order among said passengers being so transpated, and of 

society generally, is preserved." 

The petition for certiorari filed today with the Supreme Court 

is in behalf of one white and 2 Negro youths who were arrested and 

convicted for violating this ordinance. They were convicted despite 

the fact that the prosecution's witnesses clearly established the 

fact that race was the sole basis for assignment and not weight, 

safety, health or disorder. The validity of the ordinance was imme- 

diately challenged by the attorney for the youths as a violation of 

the Fourteenth Amendment. 

Following conviction, each of the youths were fined $500 and 

sentenced to 60 days in jail. On appeal to a Florida Circuit Court 

of Appeals, their conviction was affirmed on the ground that there 

was no showing of any violation of consti tutional rights, 

Attorneys for the Negroes, in their brief filed today, contend 

that the Supreme Court should review the case because the Florida 

courts decided a federal question of "substance" contrary to recent 

court decisions. They state in conclusion that "Tallahassee cannot 



s € @ 

er 

accomplish indirectly by this ordinance that which it is prohibited 

from doing directly by the dictates of the requirements of equal 

protection; for even if the ordinance in question can be said to be 

fair on its face, the record discloses that here it was in fact used 

to separate Negro and white passengers solely because of their race, 

no other reason for the separation appearing." 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys for the college youths are 

Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley of New York. Francisco 

A. Rodriguez of Tampa, Fla. appears on the brief with them. 

=30-