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On April 29, 1963, the United States Supreme Court struck down segregated courtroom seating and overturned the contempt conviction of a black man who refused to sit in a Virginia courtroom’s “Negro” section.
A year earlier, in April 1962, Ford T. Johnson, Jr. appeared in a Richmond, Virginia, city traffic court. Unaware of the courtroom’s segregated seating, Mr. Johnson — a black man — first sat in a section reserved for white people. When he was ordered to move, Mr. Johnson refused the judge’s order to re-seat himself in the black section and said he would prefer to stand. He was immediately convicted of contempt and fined ten dollars.
By EJI Staff, EJI
Featured Image, James Estrin for The New York Times
Full article @ EJI, A History of Racial Justice
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