Williams v. Wallace

• Decision Date: 19 March 1965
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 2181-N.
• Citation: 240 F. Supp. 100
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama
• Parties: Hosea WILLIAMS, John Lewis and Amelia Boynton, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. Honorable George C. WALLACE, as Governor of the State of Alabama, Al Lingo, as Director of Public Safety for the State of Alabama, and James G. Clark, as Sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, Defendants.

240 F. Supp. 100

Hosea WILLIAMS, John Lewis and Amelia Boynton, on behalf of themselves and others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, United States of America, Plaintiff-Intervenor, v. Honorable George C. WALLACE, as Governor of the State of Alabama, Al Lingo, as Director of Public Safety for the State of Alabama, and James G. Clark, as Sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 2181-N.

United States District Court M. D. Alabama, N. D.

March 17, 1965.

Order March 19, 1965.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Fred D. Gray and Solomon S. Seay, Jr., Montgomery, Ala., Peter A. Hall, Oscar W. Adams, Jr., Demetrius C. Newton, Birmingham, Ala., Jack Greenberg, Norman Amaker, Charles H. Jones, Jr., James M. Nabrit, III, and Charles S. Ralston, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Ben Hardeman, U. S. Atty., Montgomery, Ala., John Doar, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., and David Reuben, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff-intervenor.

Maury D. Smith, Charles M. Crook and John S. Bowman of Goodwyn & Smith, Montgomery, Ala., for defendants Wallace and Lingo.

John P. Kohn, Jr., Montgomery, Ala., for defendant Lingo.

McLean Pitts, P. H. Pitts, J. E. Wilkinson, Jr., and T. G. Gayle, Selma, Ala., for defendant Clark.

JOHNSON, District Judge.

The plaintiffs as Negro citizens and the members of the class they represent filed with this Court on March 8, 1965, their complaint, motion for temporary restraining order and motion for a preliminary injunction. Jurisdiction is invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and (4). This action, authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 1971(a) and (b) as amended and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, seeks relief from the denial of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and seeks redress of the deprivation of rights, privileges and immunities guaranteed by the First, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as implemented by the above-identified Congressional enactments. On March 10, 1965, the United States of America, by leave of this Court, filed its complaint in intervention. This intervention complaint was filed pursuant to an order of this Court designating the United States as a party and pursuant to the provisions of § 902 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-352, July 2, 1964). The Attorney General of the United States certifies that this case is of general importance, and his certificate is attached to the intervention complaint.

The defendant George C. Wallace is the Governor and chief executive officer of the State of Alabama. The defendant Albert J. Lingo is the Director of Public Safety of the State of Alabama, and the defendant James G. Clark, Jr., is the Sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama. The Governor as the chief executive officer of the State of Alabama is charged with the faithful execution of the laws of the State of Alabama and of the United States of America; in such capacity, the Governor controls and supervises the defendant Albert J. Lingo, and through the defendant Lingo the Governor controls and directs the activities of the Alabama Highway Patrol, also known as the Alabama State Troopers. The defendant Lingo as director is in the active control of the Alabama Highway Patrol.

The plaintiffs seek to have this Court guarantee their right to assemble and demonstrate peaceably for the purpose of redressing their grievances concerning the right to register to vote in the State of Alabama without unlawful interference. Included in the rights plaintiffs seek and ask this Court to adjudicate is that of walking peaceably along the public highway in the State of Alabama between Selma and Montgomery. Plaintiffs also ask this Court to enjoin and restrain the defendants and all persons acting in concert with them from arresting, harassing, threatening, or in any way interfering with their peaceful, nonviolent march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of protesting injustices and petitioning their State government, particularly the chief executive officer — the Governor — for redress of grievances.

By order made and entered in this case on March 9, 1965, this Court denied the plaintiffs' application for a restraining order, which was sought without any notice to the defendants and without a hearing. At the same time, upon being informed that the plaintiffs intended to continue to attempt their mass marching along the public highway of the State of Alabama between Selma and Montgomery before this Court had had an opportunity to adjudicate the respective rights of the parties, this Court entered an order temporarily restraining any further attempts on the part of the plaintiffs to enforce the rights they ask this Court to judicially determine until the matter could be heard commencing Thursday, March 11, 1965. Plaintiffs were restrained by this Court pursuant to the authority of Title 28, § 1651, United States Code, with the purpose of the temporary restraining order being necessary and appropriate in aid of this Court's jurisdiction.¹ Issue was joined by the defendants upon plaintiffs' and plaintiff-intervenor's complaints, with the defendant Governor Wallace, in addition to joining issue, asking this Court to enjoin and restrain the plaintiffs and other members of their class from continuing any march or mass demonstration along or upon U. S. Highway 80 between Selma, Alabama, and Montgomery, Alabama, or along or upon any other public highway within the State of Alabama.

This submission is upon the pleadings, the testimony of numerous witnesses taken over a period of four and one-half days, and the several exhibits offered and admitted in connection with that testimony. Upon this submission, this Court now proceeds in this memorandum opinion to make appropriate findings of fact and conclusions of law as required by Rule 52, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Under Alabama law, registration is prerequisite to voting in any election. In several counties in central Alabama, including Dallas County wherein Selma, Alabama, is located, fewer than 10% of the Negroes of voting age are registered to vote.² For the purpose of obtaining better political representation for Negro citizens in these counties, the Negro communities, through local and national organizations, have conducted voter registration drives in recent years. These voter registration drives in Dallas and other central Alabama counties have been intensified since September, 1964. Public demonstrations have been held in these several counties, particularly in Dallas County, for the purpose of encouraging Negroes to attempt to register to vote and also for the purpose of protesting discriminatory voter registration practices in Alabama. The demonstrations have been peaceful. At the same time, cases have been filed in the United States District Courts in this district³ and also in the Southern District of Alabama;⁴ these cases are designed to secure to Negro citizens their right to register to vote in several central Alabama counties.

As reflected by Appendix "A" to this opinion, the efforts of these Negro citizens to secure this right to register to vote in some of these counties, have accomplished very little. For instance, in Dallas County, as of November, 1964, where Negro citizens of voting age outnumber white citizens of voting age, only 2.2% of the Negroes were registered to vote. In Perry County as of August, 1964, where the Negro citizens of voting age outnumber white citizens, only 7% of the Negroes were registered to vote. In Wilcox County as of December, 1963, where the Negro citizens of voting age outnumber white citizens over two to one, 0% of the Negro citizens were registered to vote as contrasted with the registration of 100% of the white citizens of voting age in this county. In Hale County, where Negro citizens of voting age outnumber white citizens, only 3.6% of these Negro citizens have been registered to vote. The evidence in this case reflects that, particularly as to Selma, Dallas County, Alabama, an almost continuous pattern of conduct has existed on the part of defendant Sheriff Clark, his deputies, and his auxiliary deputies known as "possemen" of harassment, intimidation, coercion, threatening conduct, and, sometimes, brutal mistreatment toward these plaintiffs and other members of their class who were engaged in their demonstrations for the purpose of encouraging Negroes to attempt to register to vote and to protest discriminatory voter registration practices in Alabama. This harassment, intimidation and brutal treatment has ranged from mass arrests without just cause to forced marches for several miles into the countryside, with the sheriff's deputies and members of his posse herding the Negro demonstrators at a rapid pace through the use of electrical shocking devices (designed for use on cattle) and night sticks to prod them along. The Alabama State Troopers, under the command of the defendant Lingo, have, upon several occasions, assisted the defendant Sheriff Clark in these activities, and the State troopers, along with Sheriff Clark as an "invited guest," have extended the harassment and intimidating activities into Perry County, where, on February 18, 1965, when approximately 300 Negroes were engaged in a peaceful demonstration by marching from a Negro church to the Perry County Courthouse for the purpose of publicly protesting racially discriminatory voter registration practices in Perry County, Alabama, the Negro demonstrators were stopped by the State troopers under the command of the defendant Lingo, and the Negro demonstrators were at that time pushed, prodded, struck, beaten and knocked down. This action resulted in the injury of several Negroes, one of whom was shot by an Alabama State Trooper and subsequently died.

In Dallas County, Alabama, the harassment and brutal treatment on the part of defendants...