Atlanta Restaurant Suit to Test New Rights Act

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Suit Against Lester Maddox Pickrick Rest. to Test Civil Rights Act

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- Press Releases
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- LDF
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- e163880a-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 1. Atlanta Restaurant Suit to Test New Rights Act, 1964. e163880a-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/fa5d67ad-3c25-4068-8e91-55fad85793ae/atlanta-restaurant-suit-to-test-new-rights-act. Accessed December 14, 2025.

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10 Columbus Cirele
New York, N.Y. 10019
JUdson 6-8397

NAACP

Legal Defense and Educational Fund
PRESS RELEASE
President

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers July 10, 1964 ’
Director-Counsel

ack Greenberg
Associate Counsel

Constance Baker Motley

ATLANTA RESTAURANT SUIT
TO TEST NEW *RIGHTS ACT

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Attorneys Score Historic "First"

ATLANTA, GA.--Federal District Judge Frank A, Hooper here

has named Friday (July 17th) as the day on which the new

civil rights act will be tested.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys secured an order to

have segregationist restaurant owner Lester Maddox “show

cause" why Negro citizens should not be served.

The suit, filed by Legal Defense Fund Cooperating Attor-

ney William Alexander, is in behalf of three Atlanta clergymen.

It is the nation's first suit to enforce Title Two of

the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It is also the first suit of

a series of suits to be filed in hard core southern states,

according to Constance Baker Motley, associate counsel of

the Fund.

In the Atlanta suit, George S. Willis Jr., Woodrow T.

Lewis and Albert L. Dunn, all clergymen and students at the

Interdenominational Theological Center here, asked the U.S.

District Court for an injunction against discriminatory

practices of Maddox and the Pickrick Restaurant.

The plaintiffs, acting on behalf of themselves and other

Negro citizens of Atlanta, were "denied and deprived" ser-

vice at the Pickrick on Friday, July 3rd.

Maddox, on that day, confronted the neatly dressed Negro

clergymen with a drawn pistol. He called for Pickrick cus-

tomers to grab ax handles (which he keeps in a box at the

door) and charge the Negroes.

(more)

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ses ©

Atlanta Restaurant Suit -2- July 10, 1964
to Test New "Rights Act

Some of his customers, including women, responded and

descended on the Negroes, who retreated, saying they would

return.

The complaint states that discimination against Negroes

at the Pickrick is in violation of plaintiffs' rights to full

and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, priv-

ileges, advantages and accommodations of places of public

accommodation.

The Pickrick restaurant serves and offers to serve inter-

state travelers. Its operations affect travel, trade, traf-

fic, commerce and transportation between states. A substantial

portion of the food it serves moves in commerce.

This places it precisely within the scope of the new civil

rights act.

Meanwhile in New York City, Jack Greenberg, Fund director-

counsel, announced that his staff “is prepared to move quickly

and vigorously in any community where there is interference

with or violation of Negro citizens' rights secured by the

new act."

A survey this week of the Fund's 120 cooperating attorneys

in deep south and border states indicates that compliance to

date has been good.

However, several suits are imminent in Alabama at this

time and the Fund staff has been augmented in the event

pockets of defiance erupt, Greenberg said.

Joining Alexander and Mrs. Motley in the Atlanta suit was

Assistant Counsel Michael Meltsner of the Fund's New York

City headquarters.

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Atlanta Restaurant Suit to Test New Rights Act

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