BROWN ET AL. v. LOUISIANA.
No. 41
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 6, 1965.—Decided February 23, 1966.
383 U.S. 131
Richard Kilbourne argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief were Jack P. F. Gremillion, Attorney General of Louisiana, and Carroll Buck, First Assistant Attorney General.
This is the fourth time in little more than four years that this Court has reviewed convictions by the Louisiana courts for alleged violations, in a civil rights context, of that State‘s breach of the peace statute. In the three preceding cases the convictions were reversed. Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U. S. 157, decided in December 1961, involved sit-ins by Negroes at lunch counters catering only to whites. Taylor v. Louisiana, 370 U. S. 154, decided in June 1962, concerned a sit-in by Negroes in a waiting room at a bus depot, reserved “for whites only.” Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U. S. 536, decided in January 1965, involved the leader of some 2,000 Negroes who demonstrated in the vicinity of a courthouse and jail to protest the arrest of fellow demonstrators. In each of these cases the demonstration was orderly. In each, the purpose of the participants was to protest the denial to Negroes of rights guaranteed them by state and federal constitutions and to petition their governments for redress of grievances. In none was there evidence that the participants planned or intended disorder. In none were there circumstances which might have led to a breach of the peace chargeable to the protesting participants.1
Since the present case was decided under precisely the statute involved in Cox but before our decision in that case was announced, it might well be supposed that, without further ado, we would vacate and remand in light of Cox. But because the incident leading to the present convictions occurred in a public library and might be thought to raise materially different questions, we have heard argument and have considered the case in extenso.
The locus of the events was the Audubon Regional Library in the town of Clinton, Louisiana, Parish of East Feliciana. The front room of the building was used as a public library facility where patrons might obtain library services. It was a small room, containing two tables and one chair (apart from the branch assistant‘s desk and chairs), a stove, a card catalogue, and open book shelves. The room was referred to by the regional librarian, Mrs. Perkins, as “the adult reading-room, the adult service-room.” The library permitted “registered borrowers” to “browse” among the books in the room or to borrow books. A “registered borrower” was one who could produce an identification card showing that he was registered by the Audubon Regional Library. Other space in the building included the headquarters of the regional library.
The Audubon Regional Library is operated jointly by the Parishes of East Feliciana, West Feliciana, and St. Helena. It has three branches and two bookmobiles.
The registration cards issued to Negroes were stamped with the word “Negro.” A Negro in possession of such a card was entitled to borrow books, but only from the blue bookmobile. A white person could not receive service from the blue bookmobile. He would have to wait until the red bookmobile came around, or would have to go to a branch library.
This tidy plan was challenged on Saturday, March 7, 1964, at about 11:30 a. m. Five young Negro males, all residents of East or West Feliciana Parishes, went into the adult reading or service room of the Audubon Regional Library at Clinton. The branch assistant, Mrs. Katie Reeves, was alone in the room. She met the men “between the tables” and asked if she “could help.” Petitioner Brown requested a book, “The Story of the Negro” by Arna Bontemps. Mrs. Reeves checked the card catalogue, ascertained that the Branch did not have the book, so advised Mr. Brown, and told him that she would request the book from the State Library, that he would be notified upon its receipt and that “he could either pick it up or it would be mailed to him.” She told him that “his point of service was a bookmobile or it could be mailed to him.” Mrs. Reeves testified that she expected that the men would then leave; they did not, and she asked them to leave. They did not. Petitioner Brown sat down and the others stood near him. They said nothing; there was no noise or boisterous talking.
Neither Mrs. Reeves nor Mrs. Perkins had called the sheriff, but in “10 to 15 minutes” from the time of the arrival of the men at the library, the sheriff and deputies arrived. The sheriff asked the Negroes to leave. They said they would not. The sheriff then arrested them. The sheriff had been notified that morning that members of the Congress of Racial Equality “were going to sit-in” at the library. Ordinarily, the sheriff testified, CORE tells him when they are going to demonstrate or picket. The sheriff was standing at his “place of business” when he saw “these 5 colored males coming down the street.” He saw them enter the library. He called the jail to notify his deputies, and he reached the library immediately after the deputies got there. When the sheriff arrived, there was no noise, no disturbance. He testified that he arrested them “for not leaving a public building when asked to do so by an officer.”
The library obtained the requested book and mailed it to Mr. Brown on March 28, 1964. An accompanying card said, “You may return the book either by mail or to the Blue Bookmobile.” The reference to the color of the vehicle was obviously not designed to facilitate identification of the library vehicle. The blue bookmobile is for Negroes and for Negroes only.
In the course of argument before this Court, counsel for both the State and petitioners stated that the Clinton Branch was closed after the incident of March 7. Counsel for the State also advised the court that the use of cards stamped “Negro” continues to be the practice of the regional library.
On March 25, 1964, Mr. Brown and his four companions were tried and found guilty. Brown was sentenced to pay $150 and costs, and in default thereof to spend
The Louisiana breach of peace statute under which they were accused reads as follows: “Whoever with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby: (1) crowds or congregates with others . . . in . . . a . . . public place or building . . . and who fails or refuses to disperse and move on, or disperse or move on, when ordered so to do by any law enforcement officer . . . or any other authorized person . . . shall be guilty of disturbing the peace.”5
Under Louisiana law, these convictions were not appealable. See Garner v. Louisiana, supra, at 161-162. Petitioners sought discretionary review by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which denied their application, finding no error. This Court granted certiorari, 381 U. S. 901, and we reverse.
We may briefly dispose of certain threshold problems. Petitioners cannot constitutionally be convicted merely because they did not comply with an order to leave the library. See Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, 382 U. S. 87, 90-91; Wright v. Georgia, 373 U. S. 284, 291-293; Johnson v. Virginia, 373 U. S. 61; cf. Cox v. Louisiana, supra, at 579 (separate opinion of MR. JUSTICE BLACK). The statute itself reads in the conjunctive; it requires both the defined breach of peace and an order to move on. Without reference to the statute, it
We come, then, to the barebones of the problem. Petitioners, five adult Negro men, remained in the library room for a total of ten or fifteen minutes. The first few moments were occupied by a ritualistic request for service and a response. We may assume that the response constituted service, and we need not consider whether it was merely a gambit in the ritual. This ceremony being out of the way, the Negroes proceeded to the business in hand. They sat and stood in the room, quietly, as monuments of protest against the segregation of the library. They were arrested and charged and convicted of breach of the peace under a specific statute.
If we compare this situation with that in Garner, we must inevitably conclude that here, too, there is not the slightest evidence which would or could sustain the application of the statute to petitioners. The statute requires a showing either of “intent to provoke a breach of the peace,” or of “circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned” by the acts in question. There is not in this case the slightest hint of either. We need not be beguiled by the ritual of the request for a copy of “The Story of the Negro.” We need not assume that petitioner Brown and his friends were in search of a book for night reading. We instead rest upon the
Nor were the circumstances such that a breach of the peace might be “occasioned” by their actions, as the statute alternatively provides. The library room was empty, except for the librarians. There were no other patrons. There were no onlookers except for the vigilant and forewarned sheriff and his deputies. Petitioners did nothing and said nothing even remotely provocative. The danger, if any existed, was surely less than in the course of the sit-in at the “white” lunch counters in Garner. And surely there was less danger that a breach of the peace might occur from Mrs. Katie Reeves and Mrs. Perkins in the adult reading room of the Clinton Branch Library than that disorder might result from the “restless” white people in the bus depot waiting room in Taylor, or from the 100 to 300 “grumbling” white onlookers in Cox. But in each of these cases, this Court refused to countenance convictions under Louisiana‘s breach of the peace statute.
The argument of the State of Louisiana, however, is that the issue presented by this case is much simpler than our statement would indicate. The issue, asserts the State, is simply that petitioners were using the library room “as a place in which to loaf or make a nuisance of themselves.” The State argues that the “test“—the permissible civil rights demonstration—was concluded when petitioners entered the library, asked for service and were served. Having satisfied themselves, the argument runs, that they could get service, they should have departed. Instead, they simply sat there, “staring vacantly,” and this was “enough to unnerve a woman in the situation Mrs. Reeves was in.”
But there is another and sharper answer which is called for. We are here dealing with an aspect of a basic constitutional right—the right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments guaranteeing freedom of speech and of assembly, and freedom to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. The Constitution of the State of Louisiana reiterates these guaranties. See
It is an unhappy circumstance that the locus of these events was a public library—a place dedicated to quiet, to knowledge, and to beauty. It is a sad commentary that this hallowed place in the Parish of East Feliciana bore the ugly stamp of racism. It is sad, too, that it was a public library which, reasonably enough in the circumstances, was the stage for a confrontation between those discriminated against and the representatives of the offending parishes. Fortunately, the circumstances here were such that no claim can be made that use of the library by others was disturbed by the demonstration. Perhaps the time and method were carefully chosen with this in mind. Were it otherwise, a factor not present in this case would have to be considered. Here, there was no disturbance of others, no disruption of library activities, and no violation of any library regulations.
The decision below is
Reversed.
MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, concurring in the judgment.
Petitioners were charged with and convicted of violating the Louisiana statute,
“Whoever with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby . . . crowds or congregates with others . . . in or upon . . . a public street or public highway, or upon a public sidewalk, or any other public place or building . . . and who fails or refuses to disperse and move on . . . when ordered so to do by any law enforcement officer of any municipality, or parish, in which such act or acts are committed, or by any law enforcement officer of the state of Louisiana, or any other authorized person . . . shall be guilty of disturbing the peace.”
La. Rev. Stat. § 14:103.1 (Cum. Supp. 1962) .
In Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U. S. 536, 551-552, the Court declared this statute as construed unconstitutional for overbreadth: it “is unconstitutional in that it sweeps within its broad scope activities that are constitutionally protected free speech and assembly.” This holding was
The appellants in Cox were convicted for their conduct on public streets and sidewalks, while petitioners here were convicted for their conduct in a public library. Because of this it is contended in dissent, post, p. 157, that Cox and this case involve different “phases” of
First. The overbreadth of
The public building phase of
Second. The danger posed by the Louisiana courts’ definition of “breach of the peace“—that it might sweep within its broad scope activities that are constitutionally protected—is no less present when read in conjunction with “public building” than when read with “public street” and “public sidewalk.” The constitutional protection for conduct in a public building undertaken to desegregate governmental services provided therein derives from both the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, petition and assembly,5 and
In light of these possible clearly unconstitutional applications of the statute, we need not decide whether petitioners’ actual conduct is constitutionally protected; for “in appraising a statute‘s inhibitory effect upon such rights, this Court has not hesitated to take into account possible applications of the statute in other factual contexts besides that at bar.” N. A. A. C. P. v. Button, 371 U. S. 415, 432. It suffices that petitioners’ conduct was arguably constitutionally protected and was “not the sort
Since the overbreadth of
MR. JUSTICE WHITE, concurring in the result.
Were it clear from this record that lingering in a public library for 10 minutes after ordering a wanted book contravened some explicit statute, ordinance, or library regulation of general application, or even if it were reasonably clear that a 10-minute interlude between receiving service and departure exceeded what is generally contemplated as a normal use of a public library, I would have difficulty joining in a reversal of this case, for in either of these events, I would consider a refusal to leave the library and an insistence upon violating a generally applicable condition concerning the use of the library evidence of an intent to breach the peace constitutionally sufficient to sustain a conviction. Nor would I deem the First Amendment to forbid a municipal regulation limiting loafing in library reading rooms.
But nothing of the kind comes through to me in this record. There is no such ordinance or regulation and it can hardly be said that the brief sojourn in this parish library departed so far from the common practice of library users. The petitioners were there but a very brief period before being asked to leave, they were quiet and orderly, they interfered with no other library users and for all this record reveals they might have been considering among themselves what to do with the rest of their day. I think that the petitioners were entitled to be where they were for the time that they remained, and it is difficult to believe that if this group had been white its members would have been asked to leave on such
The conclusion that petitioners were making only a normal and authorized use of this public library requires the reversal of their convictions. Petitioners’ entering the library and refusing to forgo a use of the library normally permitted members of the public is no evidence, in the circumstances of this case, of any intent to breach the peace. Moreover, if the petitioners were making a use of the library normally permitted whites, why were they asked to leave the library? They were quiet, orderly, and exhibited no threatening or provocative behavior. The library had been a segregated institution, has been closed since the incident involved in this case, and the petitioners were advised they could pick up the desired book at the blue bookmobile. The State arrested petitioners because they refused to leave the library but offers no convincing explanation for why they were asked to leave. On this record, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that petitioners were asked to leave the library because they were Negroes. If they were, their convictions deny them equal protection of the laws.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK, with whom MR. JUSTICE CLARK, MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, and MR. JUSTICE STEWART join, dissenting.
I do not believe that any provision of the
Representatives of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) claimed that Negroes had been “locked out” of libraries operated jointly by three Louisiana parishes. A “demonstration was planned” by the organization “to integrate the Library,” and accordingly these five petitioners, all Negroes, went to the Audubon Regional Library located at Clinton, Louisiana, on a Saturday morning about 11:30 “to sit-in at the Library.” The county sheriff, whose office was in the courthouse within sight of the library building, had received information that “they [referring to CORE] were going to sit-in, or that something was going to take place at the Library that morning,” and noticed the petitioners when they went by his office on their way to the library. Upon arrival at the library petitioners were met inside the building by Mrs. Reeves, who was the assistant librarian. She courteously asked them if she could help them in any way. One of the group, petitioner Brown, handed her a slip of paper on which was written the title of a book which he said he wanted. Mrs. Reeves went to her
The Clinton branch of the Audubon Regional Library is not a large one. It appears to be used almost entirely as a circulating and not a reading library. The duty of Mrs. Reeves, assistant librarian, according to her testimony which was not disputed, was “To assist people who come into the Library to select their books; check out the books to them; to keep the shelves in order, and to keep a record of the circulation of the day.” In the library‘s “lobby,” where the events of this case took place, there were book shelves and one table on each side; also in the room were a desk and chair for the librarian, and one other chair. The two tables were used mainly for book display and magazines. It was not against the policy of the library to allow citizens with library registration cards to read if they cared to. But according to Mrs. Reeves’ testimony at trial, “very few people read; if a book is there and they want it, they take it and go.” Mrs. Perkins testified that “We do not maintain a reading-room, as such, we do not have the space for it.” Mrs. Perkins later referred to the “lobby” as the “adult reading-room, the adult service-room.”
The particular part of the Louisiana statute,2 under which petitioners were convicted, contrary to implica-
“Whoever with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby . . . congregates with others . . . in any . . . public . . . building . . . , and who fails or refuses to . . . move on, when ordered so to do by any law enforcement officer of any municipality . . . or any other authorized person . . . shall be guilty of disturbing the peace.”
The information against these petitioners charged, substantially in the language of the statute, that petitioners failed and refused to leave the library when ordered to do so by Mrs. Perkins who was in lawful charge of the library and also failed to leave the premises when ordered to do so by the sheriff.
Because I think that the crucial issues to be decided here are much narrower and far less complicated than the prevailing opinion implies, I find it necessary first to point out that several matters discussed in that opinion are, in my judgment, either irrelevant, or do not justify the inferences drawn from them.
I.
In concluding to reverse these convictions the prevailing opinion relies almost entirely on three prior breach of the peace cases which have come to this Court from the State of Louisiana, and Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229 (1963). I think that none of these four cases has any appreciable bearing on what the Court should hold in this case.
(a) The first of these cases is Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U.S. 157, decided in December 1961. That case, in-
(b) The second Louisiana breach of the peace case upon which the prevailing opinion relies for reversal is Taylor v. Louisiana, 370 U.S. 154 (1962). That case as described today in the prevailing opinion “concerned a sit-in by Negroes in a waiting room at a bus depot, reserved ‘for whites only.‘” In Taylor, the Court in a short per curiam opinion held merely that the breach of the peace convictions could not be supported where “the only evidence to support the charge was that petitioners were violating a custom that segregated people in waiting rooms according to their race” contrary to federal law. 370 U.S., at 156. There was no indication in that case that persons, having no business whatever in a bus depot except to stage a public protest against some state policy, have a constitutional
(c) The case relied on most heavily by the prevailing opinion and my Brother BRENNAN is Cox v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 536 (1965). That case, unlike this one, involved picketing and patrolling in the streets, and correspondingly that part of the Louisiana breach of the peace statute which prohibited certain kinds of street activity. The language of the phase of the statute under consideration here, relating to congregating in public buildings and refusing to move on when ordered to do so by an authorized person, was in no way involved or discussed in Cox. The problems of state regulation of the streets on the one hand, and public buildings on the other, are quite obviously separate and distinct. Public buildings such as libraries, schoolhouses, fire departments, courthouses, and executive mansions are maintained to perform certain specific and vital functions. Order and tranquillity of a sort entirely unknown to the public streets are essential to their normal operation. Contrary to the implications in the prevailing opinion it is incomprehensible to me that a State must measure disturbances in its libraries and on the streets with identical standards. Furthermore, the vice of discriminatory enforcement, which contaminates the “public street” phase of this statute, does not beset the statute‘s application to activity in public buildings. In the public building, unlike the street, peace and quiet is a fast and necessary rule, and as a result there is much less room for peace officers to abuse their authority in enforcing the “public building” part of the statute.
In my Brother BRENNAN‘s separate concurring opinion the contention seems to be made that in Cox this
(d) The fourth case which the prevailing opinion cites as indicating that the “public building” phase of the Louisiana statute is unconstitutional is Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229 (1963). This Court‘s holding in the Edwards case, however, was based on the fact that the statute construed there was not narrowly drawn to assure its nondiscriminatory application. Here the part of the Louisiana statute relating to public buildings, as construed and applied by the Louisiana courts, does clearly describe the offense. Nothing in Edwards as I read it, states any principle of constitutional law under which a State must permit its public libraries, dedicated to reading and learning and studying, to be used for the purpose of conducting protests against public or private policies. And that is the constitutional issue in the present case.
I find nothing in these four cases, nor in any other case decided by this Court that I can recall, which re-
II.
The prevailing opinion and to some extent the two separate concurring opinions treat this case as though Louisiana was here attempting to enforce, a policy of denying Louisiana citizens the right to use the State‘s libraries on account of race. Whatever may have been the policy of the State of Louisiana in the past or may be the policy of that State at the present, at other places or in other circumstances, there simply was no racial discrimination practiced in this case. These petitioners were treated with every courtesy and granted every consideration to which they were entitled in the Audubon Regional Library. They asked for a book, perhaps as the prevailing opinion suggests more as a ritualistic ceremonial than anything else. The lady in charge nevertheless hunted for the book, found she did not have it, sent for it, and later obtained it from the state library for petitioners’ use.5 No petitioner asked for any other book, none indicated that he wanted to read any other book, and none attempted to read any other book or any other printed matter. As a matter of fact the record shows, and the prevailing opinion admits, that the five petitioners stayed in the library not to use it for learning but as “monuments of protest” to voice their disapproval of what they
III.
As best I can tell, one ground upon which both the prevailing opinion and that of my Brother WHITE rely to reverse these convictions is that the State failed to prove its case. This conclusion appears to be based on the assumption that under the Louisiana statute properly
The phase of the Louisiana statute that we are considering here is to all intents and purposes aimed at trespassers on government property. In addition, subdivision (4) of the same Louisiana law makes it an offense for one to refuse to leave the premises of another when requested to do so by the owner. Both of these provisions of the state statute, however, provide that before an offense is committed, the conduct must be engaged in “with intent to provoke a breach of the peace, or under circumstances such that a breach of the peace may be occasioned thereby.” There is a long history behind trespass laws in the United States. Invasion of another man‘s property over his protest is one of the surest ways any person can pick out to disturb the peace.
I think that the evidence in this case established every element in the offense charged against petitioners. No one disputes the fact that petitioners congregated in a public building and refused to move on when ordered to do so by authorized persons. The only factual question which can possibly arise regarding the application of the statute here is whether under Louisiana law petitioners either intended to breach the peace or created circumstances under which a breach might have been occasioned. The record shows that petitioners, as part of a plan, entered the library and once there stayed despite the librarians’ protests until its normal activity was completely disrupted. To be sure, there were not “100 to 300 ‘grumbling’ white onlookers” as there were in Cox v. Louisiana, supra, but surely, in the prevailing opinion‘s futile effort to rely on Cox, it is not meant that 300 or 100 grumbling onlookers must be crowded into a library before Louisiana can maintain an action under this statute. A tiny parish branch library, staffed by two women, is not a department store as in Garner v. Louisiana, supra, nor a bus terminal as in Taylor v. Louisiana, supra, nor a public thoroughfare as in Edwards v. South Carolina, supra, and Cox. Short of physical violence, petitioners could not have more completely upset the normal, quiet functioning of the Clinton branch of the Audubon Regional Library. The state courts below thought the disturbance created by petitioners constituted a violation of the statute. So far as the reversal here rests on a holding that the Louisiana statute was not violated, the Court simply substitutes its judgment
IV.
Having already attempted to hold, wrongfully I think, that these convictions should be set aside as unconstitutional because of a complete lack of evidence to prove the charge, the prevailing opinion ventures out in an attempt to decide other constitutional questions. It says:
“Accordingly, even if the accused action were within the scope of the statutory instrument, we would be required to assess the constitutional impact of its application, and we would have to hold that the statute cannot constitutionally be applied to punish petitioners’ actions in the circumstances of this case.”
I have sometimes thought that this Court has gone entirely too far in refusing to decide constitutional questions on the ground that they should be avoided where possible. The journey here, however, goes entirely too far in the opposite direction. Apparently unsatisfied with or unsure of the “no evidence” ground for reversing the convictions, the prevailing opinion goes on to state that the statute was used unconstitutionally in the circumstances of this case because it 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.” First, I am
The prevailing opinion seems to find some comfort in its very questionable assumption that in this case “no claim can be made that use of the library by others was
The prevailing opinion laments the fact that the place where these events took place was “a public library—a place dedicated to quiet, to knowledge, and to beauty.” I too lament this fact, and for this reason I am deeply troubled with the fear that powerful private groups throughout the Nation will read the Court‘s action, as I do—that is, as granting them a license to invade the tranquillity and beauty of our libraries whenever they have quarrel with some state policy which may or may not exist. It is an unhappy circumstance in my judgment that the group, which more than any other has needed a government of equal laws and equal justice, is now encouraged to believe that the best way for it to
I would affirm.
Notes
“(1) Engaging in a fistic encounter; or
“(2) Using of any unnecessarily loud, offensive, or insulting language; or
“(3) Appearing in an intoxicated condition; or
“(4) Engaging in any act in a violent and tumultuous manner by any three or more persons; or
“(5) Holding of an unlawful assembly; or
“(6) Interruption of any lawful assembly of people; or
“(7) Commission of any other act in such a manner as to unreasonably disturb or alarm the public.”
Compare Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U. S. 495, and Commercial Pictures Corp. v. Regents, 346 U. S. 587, with Kingsley Int‘l Pictures Corp. v. Regents, 360 U. S. 684.“There was more to the conduct of those petitioners than a bare desire to remain at the ‘white’ lunch counter and their refusal of a police request to move from the counter. We would surely have to be blind not to recognize that petitioners were sitting at these counters, where they knew they would not be served, in order to demonstrate that their race was being segregated in dining facilities in this part of the country.
“Such a demonstration, in the circumstances of these two cases, is as much a part of the ‘free trade in ideas,’ Abrams v. United States, 250 U. S. 616, 630 (Holmes, J., dissenting), as is verbal expression, more commonly thought of as ‘speech.’ It, like speech, appeals to good sense and to ‘the power of reason as applied through public discussion,’ Whitney v. California, 274 U. S. 357, 375 (Brandeis, J., concurring), just as much as, if not more than, a public oration delivered from a soapbox at a street corner. This Court has never limited the right to speak, a protected ‘liberty’ under the Fourteenth Amendment, Gitlow v. New York, 268 U. S. 652, 666, to mere verbal expression. Stromberg v. California, 283 U. S. 359; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U. S. 88; West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624, 633-634. See also N. A. A. C. P. v. Ala-
bama, 357 U. S. 449, 460. If the act of displaying a red flag as a symbol of opposition to organized government is a liberty encompassed within free speech as protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, Stromberg v. California, supra, the act of sitting at a privately owned lunch counter with the consent of the owner, as a demonstration of opposition to enforced segregation, is surely within the same range of protections.”Public buildings often provide a forum for more traditional forms of First Amendment activity, such as verbal expression. See, e. g., Thomas v. Collins, 323 U. S. 516 (city hall); Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U. S. 1 (auditorium open to public in privately owned building).
The note describing the book he wanted which petitioner Brown gave Mrs. Reeves read, “Wendall Arna, the Story of the Negro: Bontems.” This information apparently described no printed book. The book which was obtained from the state library for petitioners’ use was The Story of the Negro, by Arna Bontemps.“Q. Was there any particular reason for these defendants going to the Library on a Saturday morning?
“A. You mean on a Saturday as opposed to any other day?
“Q. Yes?
“A. No, I don‘t.”
“Q. Sheriff, did you arrest these people, these defendants, because you considered their action going into the Library as a demonstration?
“A. I arrested them because the occupants of the building had asked them to leave, and so had I; it was a public building and they refused to leave.
. . . . .
“Q. What did you tell them when you went in, Sheriff, did you have any conversations with these people?
“A. Not with them, I talked to Mrs. Perkins, and she told me that she had taken their application and had asked them to leave, and they wouldn‘t, and I asked them to leave. Henry Brown told me it was a public library, the rest of them didn‘t say anything.
“Q. Did Brown mention anything to you about wanting a book on the Constitution of the United States?
“A. He did not.
“Q. After Brown told you that it was a public library, what did you say then?
“A. I don‘t know of anything that I said. I was assured that Mrs.
Perkins had asked them to leave since they didn‘t have the book they wanted.“Q. Did you, at that point, ask them to leave?
“A. I did.
“Q. When you—
“A. And I also told them that they had the choice of leaving, or be arrested for not leaving a public building when asked to do so by an officer.
“Q. When you got there, Sheriff, was anybody making any noise?
“A. No noise.
. . . . .
“Q. Prior to your asking these defendants to leave, did you ask each of them, all of them, whether or not they intended to use the reference-books at the Library?
“A. I didn‘t ask them what they intended to do, and they didn‘t state at that time what they were doing there.”