Forman v. City of Montgomery, Cr. No. 11727-N-11735-N.
| Decision Date | 03 August 1965 |
| Docket Number | Cr. No. 11727-N-11735-N. |
| Citation | 245 F. Supp. 17 |
| Parties | James FORMAN et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Eugene W. ADAMS et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Richard BECKER et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Thomas BERRY et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Richard BALDWIN et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Robert ALLISON et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Anya ALLISTER et al., v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Leonard McGHEE v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. Arthur RAVITZ v. CITY OF MONTGOMERY. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
Charles S. Conley, of Montgomery, Ala., and William M. Kunstler, Kunstler, Kunstler & Kinoy, and Martin Berger, New York City, for petitioners.
Matthis W. Piel, City Pros., Montgomery, Ala., for City of Montgomery.
The petitioners, 167 in number, some of whom are Negro and some of whom are white, seek to remove to this Court criminal prosecutions pending against them in the Recorder's Court, City of Montgomery, Alabama. Removal is sought pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 1443.1 The petitioners allege that they were arrested and are being prosecuted for acts done pursuant to the First, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as well as 42 U.S.C. §§ 1971, 1981 et seq., and the Civil Rights Act of 1964; furthermore, they allege that they cannot enforce their rights in the courts of the State of Alabama, including the Recorder's Court of the City of Montgomery, by reason of the fact that Negroes have been and are currently systematically excluded from service as jurors, that the judges of the courts of the State of Alabama are elected by an electorate from which Negroes are systematically excluded, and that the judges and the juries of the courts of the State of Alabama are openly and notoriously biased against petitioners and their cause.
Upon the receipt of the petitions for removal and upon the filing by the City of Montgomery of motions to remand, this Court, after giving due notice, set the cases for a hearing for the purpose of allowing the petitioners an opportunity to offer proof that they were arrested and are being prosecuted by the City of Montgomery, Alabama, and the State of Alabama for acts done under color of authority derived from the Constitution of the United States or any law thereof providing for equal rights to citizens, and for the purpose of determining whether any of the petitioners are being denied, or cannot enforce in the courts of the State of Alabama, a right under the laws providing for the equal civil rights of citizens of the United States.2 Pursuant to the oral agreement of counsel, this Court on April 12, 1965, entered a formal order consolidating these nine cases for the purpose of the hearing upon the motions to remand. The submission is now upon the evidence taken orally before the Court, the several exhibits introduced and admitted, and the briefs of the parties.
The facts leading up to the arrest of the petitioners and the activities being engaged in by the petitioners at the time of the arrests in each of these cases are as follows:
In criminal case No. 11,727-N, each of the seven petitioners is either a staff member or is associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, (SNCC), a nonincorporated civil rights organization dedicated to the achievement of the rights of Negro citizens of the State of Alabama and elsewhere. These seven petitioners were arrested on March 11, 1965, by police officers of the City of Montgomery and were charged with violating Chapter 20, § 18 of the Montgomery City Code.3
These petitioners, together with many others, came to Montgomery, Alabama, in March to participate in certain demonstrations that were designed to dramatize discrimination against Negro citizens of Alabama in the field of voting. On the morning of March 11, 1965, a meeting was conducted to discuss plans in connection with these aims; the meeting was held in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and was attended by several hundred persons. Petitioners James Forman, William Stuart House, William D. Ware and George Bess departed from the church and proceeded up Dexter Avenue toward the State Capitol for the avowed purpose of presenting a petition to the Governor of the State of Alabama. Upon being denied access to the Capitol by Alabama state troopers, they attempted to return to the church. Because of the general situation then existing throughout the City of Montgomery, Montgomery city police officers had promulgated certain rules designed to keep order among the many "demonstrators" in that area of Montgomery, Alabama, at that particular time. Forman, House, Ware and Bess were advised by Montgomery police officers near the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church that, in order to return to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, they would have to proceed along a designated route. Forman, House, Ware and Bess refused to proceed along the route designated by the officers; instead, they "went limp" and lay down in the middle of the street. Upon being requested by the officers to remove themselves from the street so that the normal flow of traffic could resume, they refused to do so and were arrested and taken to the Montgomery City Jail. There was no violence in the area at the time, and Forman, House, Ware and Bess suffered no mistreatment at the hands of the arresting officers. Petitioners William Hall, Christopher Wiley and Charles Granville attempted to leave the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church for the purpose of joining Forman and his group who were then "lying limp" in the street. Upon being refused permission to join Forman and his group, Hall, Wiley and Granville "went limp" on the sidewalk adjacent to the church and refused to remove themselves after being ordered to do so by the officers. The activities of Forman and his group and Hall and his group attracted the attention of those in the church, and over one hundred "demonstrators" came out of the church, onto the streets and sidewalks. The action of Hall and his group resulted in blocking the sidewalk adjacent to the church until they were arrested after refusing to remove themselves as ordered by the police officers. As in the case of Forman and his group, there was no violence upon or mistreatment of Hall and his group.
In criminal case No. 11,728-N, the Montgomery city police arrested approximately 70 individuals on March 18, 1965, and charged them with violating the provisions of Chapter 20, § 59, Code of the City of Montgomery, Alabama.4 The individuals arrested and now petitioning this Court for removal in this case are either staff members or are associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). The petitioners are both white and Negro citizens. In the afternoon on March 18, 1965, these petitioners, together with others who were not arrested, had proceeded from the Jackson Street Baptist Church located in Montgomery, Alabama, and had marched or paraded to the vicinity of the Alabama State Capitol. This group also had as its avowed purpose the protesting of the denial to Negroes by the State of Alabama of the right to vote. Upon reaching the Capitol, they sought to parade on the sidewalk, but were refused access to the sidewalk by reason of the fact that a considerable number of Alabama state troopers were standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Upon determining that the sidewalk was not accessible, these petitioners conducted their parade and picketing in Bainbridge Street. After a considerable length of time, they were ordered to remove themselves from the street by city police officers; upon their refusal to do so and after some of the petitioners sat down in the street, the petitioners were arrested and removed to the Montgomery City Jail. The action on the part of the Montgomery city police in this case was taken after Bainbridge Street — one of the main streets located adjacent to the Alabama Capitol and one of the busiest thoroughfares in the City about five in the afternoon —had been blocked for approximately one and one-half hours by these petitioners.
Criminal case No. 11,729-N involves the arrest on March 19, 1965, by the Montgomery city police of approximately 31 individuals who are also either staff members or are associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In the late afternoon of March 18, 1965, shortly after the individuals who are petitioning in criminal case No. 11,728-N were arrested in front of the Alabama State Capitol, approximately 50 individuals, including these 31 petitioners, marched from the vicinity of the Capitol to the Montgomery, Alabama, City Hall, with the avowed purpose of protesting the arrest of the petitioners named in criminal case No. 11,728-N. They walked two abreast on the sidewalk after reaching the City Hall and picketed or marched in this manner from approximately five-thirty in the afternoon on March 18, 1965, until shortly after midnight on March 19, 1965. While so parading around the City Hall and while city traffic court was being conducted, the petitioners sang "freedom" songs but were allowed to continue this activity without any interference from the officers. The interference from the officers came when the petitioners stopped marching and sat on the sidewalk. After the petitioners had blocked the sidewalk by sitting on it, they were ordered by the city police officers to remove themselves. Upon their refusal to do so, they were arrested and charged with violating the Montgomery, Alabama, "loitering on sidewalk" ordinance.5 The action taken by the Montgomery city policemen in arresting the petitioners in this case occurred after they had been permitted to picket for approximately eight hours, and occurred only after the petitioners had stopped their picketing and had begun to sit upon and block the sidewalks surrounding the Montgomery, Alabama, City Hall.
Criminal case No. 11,730-N involves the arrest by Montgomery city police officers of six...
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Cameron v. Johnson, Civ. A. No. 1891(H).
...regulation for parades. See generally, Smith v. City of Montgomery, 251 F.Supp. 849 (M.D.Ala. 1966). 54 See Forman v. City of Montgomery, 245 F.Supp. 17 (M.D.Ala.1965), aff'd, 355 F. 2d 930 (5 Cir. 1966), cert. den., 385 U.S. 893, 87 S.Ct. 28, 17 L.Ed.2d 127 (1966); Johnson v. City of Montg......
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...in title, "* * * is an extension of the proceedings with which this Court dealt in Forman v. City of Montgomery, * * *." M.D.Ala., 1965, 245 F.Supp. 17, affirmed, 5 Cir., 1966, 355 F.2d 930, cert. denied, 384 U.S. 1009, 86 S.Ct. 1983, 16 L.Ed.2d 1022 (1966), where the appellants unsuccessfu......
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