City of Columbia v. Bouie, 17875

Decision Date13 February 1962
Docket NumberNo. 17875,17875
Citation124 S.E.2d 332,239 S.C. 570
PartiesThe CITY OF COLUMBIA, Respondent, v. Simon BOUIE and Talmadge J. Neal, Appellants.
CourtSouth Carolina Supreme Court

Jenkins & Perry, Columbia, for appellants.

John W. Sholenberger, Edward A. Harter, Jr., Columbia, for respondent.

LEGGE, Justice.

The appellants Simon Bouie and Talmadge J. Neal, Negro college students, were arrested on March 14, 1960, and charged with trespass (Code 1952, Section 16-386 as amended) and breach of the peace (Code 1952, Section 15-909). Bouie was also charged with resisting arrest. On March 25, 1960, they were tried before the Recorder of the City of Columbia, without a jury. Both were found guilty of trespass; Bouie guilty also of resisting arrest. Bouie was sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred ($100.00) dollars or to imprisonment for thirty (30) days on each charge, twenty-four and 50/100 ($24.50) of each fine being suspended and the prison sentences to run consecutively. Neal was sentenced to pay a fine of one hundred ($100.00) dollars, of which twenty-four and 50/100 ($24.50) was suspended, or to imprisonment for thirty (30) days. On appeal to the Richland County Court the judgment of the Recorder's Court was affirmed by order dated April 28, 1961, from which this appeal comes.

Eckerd's, one of Columbia's larger drugstores, in addition to selling to the general public drugs, cosmetics and other articles usually sold in drugstores, maintains a luncheonette department, Its policy is not to serve Negroes in that department.

On March 14, 1960, about noon, the appellants entered this drugstore and sat down in a booth in the luncheonette department for the purpose, according to their testimony, of ordering food and being served. Neal testified that it was his intention to be arrested; Bouie testified that he knew of the store's policy not to serve Negroes in that department, and that it was his purpose also to be arrested 'if it took that'. No employee of the store approached them, and they continued to sit in the booth for some fifteen minutes, each with an open book before him, when the manager of the store came up, in company with a police officer, told them that they would not be served, and twice requested them to leave. Upon their ignoring such request, the police officer asked them to leave, which request brought no result other than the query 'for what' from Bouie. The police officer then told them to leave and that they were under arrest. Thereupon Neal closed his book and got up; Bouie did not, and the officer thereupon caught him by the arm and lifted him out of the seat. Bouie's book being still on the table, he was permitted to get it; and the officer then seized him by the belt and proceeded to march him out of the store. Bouie testified that he made no resistance, but only said to the officer when the latter had hold of his belt, 'That's all right, Sheriff, I'll come on'. The officer testified that Bouie said: 'Don't hold me, I'm not going anywhere', and that after they had proceeded a few steps he 'started pushing...

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7 cases
  • State v. Brannon
    • United States
    • South Carolina Court of Appeals
    • July 18, 2008
    ...court considered whether a delay in responding to a police officer's instruction constituted resisting arrest. City of Columbia v. Bouie, 239 S.C. 570, 124 S.E.2d 332 (1962), overruled on other grounds, 378 U.S. 347, 84 S.Ct. 1697, 12 L.Ed.2d 894 (1964). The court [T]he evidence was in our ......
  • State v. Myers
    • United States
    • New Mexico Supreme Court
    • June 17, 2011
    ...notice to the trespassing party before entry, something that was conspicuously absent in the present case. See City of Columbia v. Bouie, 239 S.C. 570, 124 S.E.2d 332 (1962), rev'd, 378 U.S. 347, 84 S.Ct. 1697. The U.S. Supreme Court noted that in the 95 years between the enactment of the s......
  • Bouie v. City of Columbia
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • June 22, 1964
    ...by the State Supreme Court over objections based upon the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. 239 S.C. 570, 124 S.E.2d 332. We granted certiorari to review the judgments affirming these trespass convictions. 374 U.S. 805, 83 S.Ct. 1690, 10 L.Ed.2d 1030. We ......
  • Aue v. Diesslin, 89SA287
    • United States
    • Colorado Supreme Court
    • September 10, 1990
    ...provisions in Thiret. There had been no prior judicial interpretation of the relevant statutory language.3 In City of Columbia v. Bouie, 239 S.C. 570, 124 S.E.2d 332 (1962), the South Carolina Supreme Court broadened the scope of its trespass statute to include the conduct of civil rights d......
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