accommodations.10 Furthermore, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 leaves no doubt as to the right to use public accommodations free from any interference from private citizens or public officials.11

LEGISLATIVE AND JUDICIAL INTERFERENCE

Americus, Georgia.—In 1962, anticipating mass demonstrations, the Americus City Council amended the city's parade ordinance to require a permit if five or more persons desired to parade.12 Soon after demonstrations began, the Council enacted an ordinance restricting picketing to business hours, limiting the number of pickets to two per block, and requiring them to remain twenty feet apart.13 The Council later enacted ordinances that made it unlawful to refuse to comply with lawful orders or directions of police officers" and required persons to leave any public or private building on request of the owner or person in charge.15 When large numbers of demonstrators were arrested for violating these ordinances, the Council passed another ordinance compelling city prisoners to pay jail fees in order to secure their release."

St. Augustine, Florida.-The St. Augustine City Commission, in June 1963, responded to picketing by enacting an ordinance that prohibited picketing which interfered with normal pedestrian traffic or sought to persuade persons not to do business with the establishments being picketed.'

10

17

See Robinson v. Florida, 378 U.S. 153 (1964); Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, 365 U.S. 715 (1961); Holmes v. Atlanta, 350 U.S. 879 (1955); Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City v. Dawson, 350 U.S. 877 (1955). See also Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000b (1964).

11 42 U.S.C. § 2000a-2 (1964). See Dilworth v. Riner, 343 F.2d 226 (5th Cir. 1965). 12 Code of Americus City Ordinances, § 23-3 (1963). The permit must be applied for at least ten days prior to a parade.

13 Code of Americus City Ordinances, § 15-27.1.

14 Code of Americus City Ordinances, § 15-35.1.

15 Code of Americus City Ordinances, § 15-19.1.

16 Ordinance of August 9, 1963, Americus, Georgia.

17 Emergency Ordinance No. 167–A, passed June 19, 1963.

In May and June 1964 large groups of demonstrators staged a series of night mass marches.18 Police ordered the leaders to halt these marches,19 and a few days later the city council imposed a 9 p.m. curfew on all persons under the age of 18.20 As the demonstrations continued and met violent interference, Florida Governor Farris Bryant issued an executive order proclaiming a state of emergency and banning night marches during this emergency.

21

Mississippi. In April 1963, three days after local Negroes and civil rights workers began marches to the county courthouse in Greenwood to protest denials of the right to vote, the city council reacted by issuing a proclamation prohibiting all large organized groups from going on the streets or sidewalks of the city.22 The council then broadened the city's parade ordinance to require a permit for virtually every use of the streets and sidewalks other than ordinary transit.23 City officials stated that no permits would be issued for demonstrations, explaining that this was necessary to prevent violence by whites.24 When demonstrations resumed in 1964, the council again issued a public order prohibiting organized groups from using public sidewalks or streets.25

18

'Interview with Dr. Robert B. Hayling, St. Augustine SCLC leader, August 7, 1964 [hereinafter cited as Second Hayling Interview].

19 Young v. Davis, 9 Race Rel. L. Rep. 590, 594 (M.D. Fla. 1964).

20

"Id. at 595. The police order and the curfew were vacated by a Federal court, which held that they constituted an unconstitutional interference with first amendment rights. Id. at 597.

219 Race Rel. L. Rep. 1515, 1516 (1964). Violation of the order was to be punished by imprisonment up to six months and a fine of $500.

Interview with Charles E. Sampson, mayor of Greenwood; Hardy Lott, city attorney; B. F. Hammond, police commissioner; and Curtis Lary, chief of police, May 20, 1964 [hereinafter cited as Greenwood City Interview]. Statement to the public from Greenwood City Council, April 1, 1963.

23 Ordinance of June 21, 1963, amending § 76 of Art. IX of the ordinance of Nov. 20, 1953, City of Greenwood, 8 Race Rel. L. Rep. 1196 (1963). Penalty for violation of this ordinance is $100 or 30 days.

24 Greenwood City Interview. Pursuant to the order and the ordinance, police dispersed attempted demonstrations before they left the Negro neighborhood. Memorandum in Commission file.

25 Greenwood City Interview.

The most sweeping legislation adopted to restrict demonstration activity was passed by the Mississippi legislature early in 1964 in response to an announcement by civil rights workers that a "Summer Project" involving hundreds of persons was to be held in the State. Criminal measures were enacted which limited certain kinds of demonstrations,26 prohibited the printing or distribution of printed material advocating boycotts," provided municipal authorities with increased powers to deal with anticipated trouble, and prohibited advocating, teaching, or aiding in criminal acts designed to effect any political or social change.29

28

In addition to legislation, officials in Jackson, Mississippi, and Gadsden, Alabama, sought and obtained State court injunctions prohibiting demonstrations.30 The injunctions were issued ex parte-without an opportunity for the demonstrators to present arguments against their issuance or terms. There were no arrests under the Jackson injunction 32 but numerous arrests were made subsequently under the Gadsden injunction.3

31

33

ARRESTS OF DEMONSTRATORS

In the six communities studied, Commission investigation disclosed that persons who demonstrated or attempted to use public

26

Miss. Code § 2318.5 (Supp. 1964) (limited picketing and mass demonstrations which would interfere with public business and the administration of justice).

27 Miss. Code § 2236.5 (Supp. 1964).

29 Miss. Code § 3374-132(2) (Supp. 1964) (municipal authorities granted power to restrict movement of citizens when there exists a danger to public safety); Miss. Code § 3470 (Supp. 1964) (communities authorized to enter mutual assistance pacts to pool personnel, equipment, and supplies in order to quell disturbances); Miss. Code § 2087.9 (Supp. 1964) (prohibiting refusal to comply with orders or commands of law enforcement officers).

29 Miss. Code §§ 2066.5-01-02, 03, 04 (Supp. 1964).

3 The order in Jackson prohibited unlawful acts of parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing, picketing, and any demonstration at churches. Jackson v. Salter, 8 Race Rel. L. Rep. 433 (Ch. Hinds Co. 1963). The Gadsden order prohibited the blocking of sidewalks, streets, or entrances to stores. State ex rel. Flowers v. Robinson, 8 Race Rel. L. Rep. 848 (Cir. Ct. Etowah Co. 1964).

31 Ibid.

32

Interview with Jack Young and Carsie Hall, Jackson Negro attorneys, June 10, 1964 [hereinafter cited as Jackson Attorney Interview].

33 Interview with Circuit Judge A. B. Cunningham, July 2, 1964, [hereinafter cited as Cunningham Interview].

accommodations or facilities were immediately ordered to disperse and were arrested if they refused to do so. The action of local officials indicated they did not consider whether the activity of those arrested was statutorily or constitutionally protected or whether, in fact, the persons arrested were engaged in harmful activity.

Participants in mass marches rarely had an opportunity to proceed more than a few blocks before they were arrested—usually under an ordinance requiring a permit to parade. Officials often made arrests before the marchers could proceed past the Negro section of town. Since Negroes were unable to give public expression to their grievances through the use of public assembly, they submitted to arrest in order to publicize their protest.

Gadsden, Alabama.-Sit-in demonstrations in Gadsden began in June 1963 with groups of 75 to 100 demonstrators protesting segregated restaurants and lunch counters.34

A few days after the first sit-in, city officials obtained a State court injunction that prohibited demonstrators from blocking sidewalks, entrances to stores, and traffic, but expressly permitted certain types of peaceful demonstrations.35 The next afternoon, when 300 Negroes gathered in front of the county courthouse, 235 persons were arrested for violating the injunction.36 That evening a large group of Negroes assembled on the courthouse lawn to protest the arrests; they were driven from the lawn by Alabama State troopers using cattle prods and nightsticks.37

**Interview with Q. B. Adams, Rev. W. A. Baskerville, Leon Ballou, and Bishop G. W. Garrison, Negro leaders, June 30, 1964 [hereinafter cited as Gadsden Leaders Interview]; interview with Tony Reynolds, chief sheriff's deputy, and Felton Yates, deputy sheriff, July 1, 1964 [hereinafter cited as Reynolds Interview]; interview with managers of W. T. Grant, Woolworth's, Murphy's, and Sears Roebuck stores, July 2, 1964.

35

36

Record, Ex parte Robinson, Case No. 9584, Cir. Ct., Etowah County, June 25, 1963. Ibid.; Gadsden Leaders Interview; Etowah County Jail Book.

Gadsden Leaders Interview; interview with Leslie L. Gilliland, mayor, and Joseph Hubbard, police commissioner, July 1, 1964; Reynolds Interview. The FBI investigated 22 complaints by victims alleging injuries from excessive force by State troopers. Memorandum in Commission files.

More arrests under this injunction followed throughout the summer. Protest activities ended with the arrest of 233 demonstrators during a march in August.38

39

Laurel, Mississippi.-The Commission's investigation in Laurel centered on attempts by Negroes to eat at previously segregated lunch counters following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Notwithstanding the clear legislative mandate establishing the Federal right to equal use of public accommodations, in December 1964 Laurel officials arrested integrated groups of persons who sought to obtain service at a local coffee shop. Laurel Police Chief L. C. Nix made these arrests pursuant to warrants alleging that those arrested "willfully and unlawfully, with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, refused to leave the Pinehurst Coffee Shop." Each of the arrested defendants was charged with breach of the peace and required to post $101 bond. Chief Nix justified his action principally on the ground that as a local police officer he had no duty to determine the rights of the defendants under Federal law. When asked whether he had any obligation to enforce Federal law in Mississippi, Chief Nix replied, "My obligations are to enforce State laws, local ordinances, and to preserve the peace." He was then questioned as follows:

41

9 40

Commissioner GRISWOLD. Have you heard of the public accommodations provisions of the Civil Rights Act? Mr. Nix. Yes, sir.

Commissioner GRISWOLD. Do you regard them as law in Mississippi?

Mr. Nix. Yes, sir.

38 Etowah County Jail Book; Gadsden Leaders Interview.

39

Jones County Report, T. 470. The public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court prior to the arrests. Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, 379 U.S. 261 (1964); see also Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294 (1964).

40

Arrest records produced in response to Commission's subpena.

41 T. 181-82.

42 T. 181.