Peterson v. City of Greenville

Peterson v. City of Greenville
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 6–7, 1962 Decided May 20, 1963
Full case name	Peterson v. City of Greenville
Citations	373 U.S. 537 (more) 15
Case history
Prior	Supreme Court of South Carolina, State v. Randolph et al., 239 S.C. 79
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Arthur Goldberg
Case opinion
Majority	Harlan, joined by unanimous

Peterson v. City of Greenville, 373 U.S., was a United States Supreme Court case that maintained the illegality of race-based segregation in public places. Ten African American student protesters were arrested and convicted in Greenville, South Carolina for attempting to purchase food at an S.H. Kress lunch counter. After the African American students arrived at the restaurant and sat at the lunch counter, the manager abruptly closed the store and instructed the protesters to leave. The manager and police argued that the protesters violated a state trespassing ordinance and were not arrested because of their race. While the Supreme Court of South Carolina maintained the students' guilt, the United States Supreme Court reversed the decision, citing that a "violation of the Fourteenth Amendment cannot be saved by attempting to separate the mental urges of the discriminators."^[1]