Robinson v. Coopwood

292 F. Supp. 926, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9620
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedNovember 7, 1968
Docket6830-K
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 292 F. Supp. 926 (Robinson v. Coopwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Robinson v. Coopwood, 292 F. Supp. 926, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9620 (N.D. Miss. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

READY, Chief Judge.

This case involves the constitutionality of a municipal ordinance of Holly Springs, Mississippi, requiring that one hour’s notice be given to the City Police Department before any march in protest of grievances may take place in that city.

The ordinance in question was passed in response to increased civil rights activity in the area, brought in the wake of the April 4, 1968, murder of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King some thirty miles away in Memphis, Tennessee. About two days after Dr. King’s death there was conducted a march of some 500 people, which began on the Rust College campus, and proceeded down Rust Avenue, up Memphis Street, on to College and Randolph Streets, and back to the Rust campus. The demonstration was peaceful; no arrests were made during the march. Leaders of this march were the plaintiffs, as well as Negro citizens identified as Boyd, Conway and Reverend Stewart.

Between the April 6, 1968, march and May 10, 1968, the date of the passage of the ordinance sought to be declared unconstitutional here, there ensued a series of marches calculated to demonstrate to the community at large certain grievances held by the Negro population. The marches were conducted on the public streets and sidewalks of Holly Springs, Mississippi, and occasionally they involved sizeable numbers of both adults and students. The number of such marches, which were conducted both at night and during the daytime, was variously estimated by the witnesses to be from as low as 8 or 10 to as high as 30 or 32. Although marches occurred as frequently as two or three in a single day, no arrests were made in connection with any march prior to May 15, 1968.

On May 10, 1968, there was unanimously passed by the Board of Aldermen of the City of Holly Springs an ordinance regulating peaceful demonstrations within the city limits. A copy of the ordinance is attached as an appendix to this Opinion. Persons desiring to conduct mass assemblages and other related activity, were required, inter alia, to notify the city police department of their intention at least one hour in advance of the commencement thereof. Parties desiring to picket only, however, were required to give advance notice only if 10 or more participants were to be involved. Peaceful marching was permitted subject to the further requirements that the participants in such activities proceed in no greater number than two abreast and in groups no larger than 20, that no two such demonstration activities be conducted simultaneously, and that participants obey all traffic signals and walk, as nearly as possible, only on the right-hand edge of public streets. There was proscribed any “singing, chanting or other conduct calculated to disturb the peace of homes adjacent to the route of march”, between the hours of 7:30 p. m. and 7:30 a. m. *929 Peaceful picketing was made subject to similar restrictions. On the day following its passage, a copy of the ordinance was presented to plaintiff Young by Mayor Coopwood, and at all pertinent times, plaintiffs were generally familiar with its provisions.

On the evening of May 12 or 13, at 9:30 p. m., plaintiffs organized and led a march of some 200 persons from Anderson Chapel, which is 800 yards from the courthouse square, directly to the courthouse steps. The group passed two street traffic lights, one of which was about 250 yards from the Chapel and the other at the corner of the courthouse square. There were some singing, praying, and speech-making but no fights, disorders or arrests.

On May 15, 1968, at approximately 10 p. m., plaintiffs Gipson and Cottenreader led a spontaneous march of about 50 persons from Anderson Chapel on the same route to the court square. They were met there by Ray Bright, a Marshall County Deputy Sheriff, and two other law enforcement officers, who directed them to turn around and go back, because they had not given the requisite one hour’s notice before beginning the march. Upon request, they were given permission, however, to remain assembled there about five minutes, long enough to conduct singing and a prayer, at the conclusion of which they were ordered by Mayor Coopwood, who had arrived at the scene, to disperse because they were in violation of the ordinance. He did not specify in what manner the ordinance was being violated. When the crowd failed to break up, the Mayor ordered the arrest of approximately 20 persons. Among those arrested were plaintiffs Robinson, Gipson Pegues, Young, Caldwell and Cottenreader, as well as Boyd, Stewart and Conway, other Negro leaders who are not parties to this action. At the height of the arrest, there were, other than the 50 or so marchers, about 15 to 30 bystanders, and about 20 law enforcement officers, approximately 15 of whom were auxiliary personnel. Of the plaintiffs arrested, only Gipson, Cottenreader and Caldwell were actual participants in that night’s march; Robinson, Pegues .and Young arrived after the march had reached the courthouse square. Many of the persons who were arrested were taken to the Marshall County jail under an arrangement whereby County Sheriff Johnnie Taylor agreed to relieve some of the problems caused by the space limitations of the municipal jail.

On May 18 and 19 most of those arrested in connection with the marching, including the plaintiffs here, were tried in the City Court of Holly Springs, with defendant Mayor Coopwood presiding as Police Justice and ex-officio Justice of the Peace. Some defendants were not represented by counsel, pleaded guilty and received nominal fines, except for a number of minors against whom charges were dropped. Six of those arrested, the named plaintiffs in this action, insisted upon their right to counsel, pleaded not guilty, and each was convicted on one or more charges and sentenced to pay fines. Plaintiff Cottenreader, who had a prior 'police record, was sentenced also to 60 days in jail. All named plaintiffs appealed their convictions, and those proceedings are still pending in state court.

Between the date of the death of Martin Luther King on April 4,1968, and that of the arrests in question here, there took place incidents which indicated that there existed a degree of racial tension in Holly Springs. Isolated incidents of violence and threats of violence occurred during this period. There were fires of a possible incendiary origin at the home of Ed Jones, a white person, and at Chewalla Mission Church, a white church, on the evenings of April 5 and 15 respectively. One fire was reported by the log of Fire Chief Fant to have been started by Molotov cocktails, but otherwise his record indicates that there were no unusual fires. Eleven fires were reported in April and 4 reported in May as compared to 10, 10, 8 and 10 of the preceding months of December 1967 and January, February and March *930 1968, respectively. The reported incidents of violence were as follows: There was committed upon Lee Bynum, a white male, an assault by U. Z. Nunnery, a Negro leader of wide repute in the community, who was arrested and convicted on charges arising from this incident. On the night of Dr. King’s death there occurred incidents of rock-throwing in the vicinity of Rust College, a Negro institution; and there is also evidence that plaintiff Reverend Pegues made, on at least one occasion, an inflammatory speech from the courthouse steps, calculated, in the opinion of the defendants, to incite local Negros to lawlessness.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
292 F. Supp. 926, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/robinson-v-coopwood-msnd-1968.