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Peterson v. City of Greenville

Supreme Court of the United States · 1963 · Constitutional Law

Constitutional LawEqual ProtectionState ActionRacial SegregationFourteenth AmendmentEqual Protection Clausestate actionracial discrimination

Facts

Ten Negro boys and girls entered the S. H. Kress store in Greenville, South Carolina, sat at the lunch counter, and quietly remained there for about five minutes seeking service. The store manager then had an employee call the police, turned off the lights, announced the lunch counter was closed, and told everyone to leave the area; the petitioners remained seated and were arrested. The manager testified that he asked them to leave because integrated service was contrary to local customs of segregation and because Greenville had an ordinance requiring racial separation in restaurants. The petitioners were clean, well dressed, unoffensive, and the store otherwise invited and solicited Negro patronage in all departments except the lunch counter.

Issue

Whether the State denied petitioners equal protection of the laws by convicting them of trespass after they refused to leave a lunch counter where their exclusion was compelled by a city ordinance requiring racial segregation in restaurants. More specifically, the question was whether enforcement of the trespass statute in these circumstances constituted unconstitutional state action.

Rule

Private discrimination violates the Equal Protection Clause when the State has become involved in it to a significant extent. When a state agency commands racial segregation by law, it removes the matter from private choice; if the State then uses its criminal processes to enforce the discrimination mandated by that law, the resulting convictions violate the Fourteenth Amendment.

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One of 10 multiple-choice questions for this case. Pick an answer to see why.

In Jackson, Mississippi, Maya Brooks and three friends entered the lunch area of Riverbend Mercantile, a privately owned department store open to the general public. A city code required restaurants to maintain separate service counters for white and Black patrons, and the manager ordered the group to leave the white counter; when they refused, local police arrested them for criminal trespass.

Were the trespass convictions constitutional?

Explanation. The convictions are unconstitutional. The majority rule is that private discrimination becomes state action when the State has become involved to a significant extent. A city ordinance commanding racial segregation removes the matter from private choice, and using trespass prosecutions to carry out that command violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court expressly resolved the case on equal protection grounds without needing to reach free speech claims.