230 A.2d 452 (Md. 1967), 525, Carroll v. President and Com'rs of Princess Anne
| Citation | 230 A.2d 452, 247 Md. 126 |
| Opinion Judge | [10] Finan |
| Party Name | Joseph CARROLL et al. v. The PRESIDENT AND COMMISSIONERS OF PRINCESS ANNE, County Commissioners of Somerset County et al. |
| Attorney | [7] William Harris Zinman, with whom was Eleanor Norton on the brief, for appellants. |
| Case Date | June 07, 1967 |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Page 452
[247 Md. 127] William Harris Zinman, Baltimore, and Eleanor Norton, New York City, (member of D. C. and Pa. Bars) for appellants.
Alexander G. Jones, Princess Anne (Jones & Jones and Thomas S. Simpkins and Simpkins & Simpkins, Princess Anne, on the brief), for appellees.
Before HORNEY, MARBURY, BARNES, McWILLIAMS and FINAN, JJ.
FINAN, Judge.
This is an appeal by Joseph Carroll, Richard Norton, J. B. Stoner, Connie Lynch, Robert Lyons, William Brailsford, and the National State Rights Party, hereinafter referred to as NSRP, from the temporary order of August 7, 1966, and the interlocutory order of August 30, 1966, rendered by the Circuit Court for Somerset County, chancery division, at the instance [247 Md. 128]
Page 453
of the appellees, the President and Commissioners of Princess Anne, the County Commissioners of Somerset County, and Mahlond Price and James E. Lauchner, individually, enjoining each of the appellants individually, as well as the NSRP, from holding rallies or participating in any public demonstrations in Somerset County for a period of ten months. The appellants, thereafter, filed an immediate appeal from the various orders below to this Court.
The appellants, each of whom are members or officers of the NSRP, a white supremacist political organization, held what could be described as a public rally or meeting near the courthouse steps on August 6, 1966, at 7:00 p. m., in the Town of Princess Anne, in Somerset County, for the purpose of publicly advancing the tenets of their cause.
The community, or some members of it, were notified four hours in advance of the proposal to hold this meeting. Upon their arrival, the appellants commenced to hook up a public address system. At this time, the appellants were approached by Captain Paul J. Randall, Troop Commander of the State Police for the Eastern Shore District. One of the appellants, Joseph Carroll, Youth Director of the NSRP, together with J. B. Stoner, attorney for the organization, asked Captain Randall if there was any law prohibiting the appellants from setting up an amplifying device and holding a rally in front of the courthouse on Somerset Street. Captain Randall advised Mr. Carroll that no such law existed. Accordingly, the privilege of holding the rally was extended to the appellants within the ambit of Captain Randall's authority. Captain Randall did request that the speeches omit any mention of two pending rape cases involving Negro defendants and a white victim. Thereafter, the rally was commenced by the playing of a musical tape, capable of being heard for several blocks, to the repeated refrain: 'Send the niggers north.'
Princess Anne, population 1351 (948 white, 403 Negro) is the county seat of Somerset County, population 19,623 (12,315 white, 7,300 Negro). The county is sparsely settled, the majority of its inhabitants being farmers or watermen. Most of the time it is a tranquil community; however, in 1933 it was the scene of Maryland's last lynching. In 1964 the town was again [247 Md. 129] the scene of serious racial disturbances during which time there were many demonstrations by students of Maryland State College, located in the town with a predominantly Negro student body of 730. A large detachment of Maryland State Police were called at that time to quell the disturbance and the Troop Commander of the State Police was seriously injured. Concentrated sulphuric acid was indiscriminately thrown at the police. Princess Anne is 40 miles from Cambridge, county seat of Dorchester County, where civil disturbances required the presence of the Maryland National Guard for a period of over a year (1963-64). The appellants, the week previously, had been arrested for causing a race riot in Patterson Park, Baltimore, Maryland, which had been given full TV, radio and press coverage. It was not mere chance which brought the appellants to Princess Anne.
At 7:15 Joseph Carroll opened the rally with the announcement that this was a white rally, designed to carry forward the views of the white people organized to oppose black terror, the Communist conspiracy in the United States, unconstitutional injunctions against good white people, such as the appellants, the Negro power structure, a mongrelization of the races and integration of schools and housing. To prevent mongrelization, Carroll assured his audience that they intended to fight in the courts and in every legal manner through the political organization of the NSRP and that they had taken enought off of the 'niggers' and enough off of 'Martin Lucifer Coon.'
The appellant, Richard Norton, leveled his sights at the school integration program.
Page 454
Under freedom of choice, according to Norton, a community was not forced to integrate its schools if it refused to accept, * * * 'LBJ's Judas, thirty pieces of silver.' The price of acceptance, continued Norton, would lead to rape and the 'sacrifice of white blood' in our schools.
Norton lived up to the promise given Captain Randall that no mention would be made of the two pending rape cases involving Negro defendants and a white woman; however, with some relish he reminded the crowd about the 1933 lynching, saying:
'In 1933 a nigger grabbed a 75 year old white woman in this town and brutally raped her, brutally raped her. [247 Md. 130] What did they do? Did the people go out and say that nigger was a victim of discrimination and that's why he raped her? No. Let me tell you what happened. I am not advocating this but I am just recounting a bit of history. Three thousand people from this town rose up, took that beast out and hung him. You know what the Baltimore papers said, you know what they said? They called it Eastern Shore barbarism, Eastern Shore barbarism. Now a lot of oldtimers here tonight remember the stickers you all had on your cars and windows, 'I am an Eastern Shore man and damn proud of it.' You folks proud of it?
'(Voices) Yeah, yeah.'
On integration of schools, Mr. Norton had this to say:
'The act, this is a political struggle, we're in. It's a struggle for survival. Don't think you have it had down here with niggers. Really, it's not too bad yet. Come to Baltimore City, see what's happening to schools there. The school superintendent of Baltimore City, the excellent Dr. Brain, three years ago his daughter went to Western High School. A nigger girl took a coke bottle, smashed the bottom out, and gouged that poor child's face. Well, after that Dr. Brain resigned, gone to Portland, Oregon, so daughter could have plastic surgery. Now these bootlickers and political vermin, some of these preachers will tell you they accept this, this is insanity. Don't accept it. Never accept it. Organize. Fight it. You'll win every single time. You want to fight? Come on, let's hear it. Want to fight?
'(Voices) Yeah, yeah.'
On employment, Mr. Stoner stated:
'If we only hire whites and we move the blacks out legally, in accordance with the law, up to New York or some place like that, we won't have niggers down here to mix up with.' [247 Md. 131]
Mr. Norton continuing on the theme of their Baltimore rally of the previous week, and the inevitable uprising of the whites, said:
'Well, let me tell you last Thursday night in Baltimore City, two thousand people stood out there in front of our speakers' platform and said that they didn't like niggers and it certainly shook up the political structure of Baltimore City. They had to go to court to stop him. Now they are going to stop us for awhile.
'We know the feelings of people. We watched them for three years building in this country. This country, according to the Newsweek magazine, is probably heading for mass racial violence-two years, three years, nobody can stop it. We can't...
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