Brown v. Louisiana - 383 U.S. 131, 86 S. Ct. 719 (1966)

Rule:

The right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments guaranteeing freedom of speech and of assembly, and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances are not confined to verbal expression. They embrace appropriate types of action which certainly include the right in a peaceable and orderly manner to protest by silent and reproachful presence, in a place where the protestant has every right to be, the unconstitutional segregation of public facilities.

Facts:

For the purpose of peaceably protesting the denial of their constitutional right to equal treatment in a public facility, petitioners, five Negroes, entered the public room of a regional library operated on a segregated basis by the Louisiana parishes where they lived and another parish. No one was in the library room except petitioners and the library assistant. Petitioner Brown requested a book. The library assistant, after checking, advised that the library did not have the book but that she would request it from the State Library and that Brown would be notified upon its receipt. (The book was mailed to him at a later date, with instructions to mail it back or deliver it to the library's "Blue" bookmobile, a facility reserved for Negroes only.) Thereafter the library assistant asked petitioners to leave. But, for the purpose of manifesting silent protest against the library's segregation policy, Brown sat down and the others stood near him. There was no noise or boisterous talking. The branch librarian also asked petitioners to leave but they remained. In about 10 or 15 minutes from the time petitioners entered the library the sheriff and deputies arrived, having been forewarned, asked petitioners to leave, and were told that they would not. The sheriff then arrested them. Subsequently petitioners were convicted for violating the Louisiana breach of the peace statute, which makes it a crime "with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby" to crowd or congregate in a public building and fail or refuse to disperse or move on when ordered to do so by a law enforcement officer or other authorized person.

Issue:

Were the convictions of the minorities for disturbing the peace proper?

Answer:

No.

Conclusion:

The Court held that the minorities could not constitutionally be convicted merely because they did not comply with an order to leave the library. The minorities' presence in the library was unquestionably lawful. It was a public facility, open to the public. There was no evidence to sustain the application of the disturbing the peace statute to the minorities. The minorities intended to and did stage a peaceful and orderly protest demonstration, with no intent to provoke a breach of the peace. Nor were the circumstances such that a breach of the peace might be "occasioned" by their actions, as the statute alternatively provided. The sole statutory provision invoked by the State stated nothing about occupying the reading room of a public library for more than 15 minutes, any more than it purported to punish the bare refusal to obey an unexplained command to withdraw from a public place. The statute was deliberately and purposefully applied solely to terminate the reasonable, orderly, and limited exercise of the right to protest the unconstitutional segregation of a public facility. Interference with this right, so exercised, by state action is intolerable under our Constitution.