Edwards v. South Carolina

Edwards v. South Carolina, 372 U.S. 229 (1963), argued 13 Dec. 1962, decided 25 Feb. 1963 by vote of 8 to 1; Stewart for the Court, Clark in dissent. Edwards was a “time, place, and manner” case in which the Supreme Court, reversing the convictions of civil rights demonstrators, established the principle that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which incorporates the provisions of the First Amendment, does not permit a state to make criminal the peaceful expression of unpopular views.

Approximately two hundred African‐American high school and college students walked in groups of fifteen from a church in Columbia, South Carolina, to the grounds of the state capitol, an area normally open to the public. Their purpose in visiting this traditional public forum was to protest discrimination against blacks and to seek repeal of the laws that produced unequal treatment. Three dozen law enforcement officers were on the capitol grounds when the demonstrators arrived. They informed the students of their right to be peacefully present there. For the better part of an hour, the demonstrators walked through the grounds in an orderly fashion carrying placards expressing their pride in being black and their opposition to segregation. During this time, a crowd of two hundred to three hundred curious, but nonhostile, onlookers gathered at the periphery of the capitol grounds. Police protection at all times was adequate to meet any foreseeable possibility of disorder.

Nonetheless, the police informed the students that they would be arrested if they did not disperse within fifteen minutes. The students commenced to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” and other patriotic and religious songs. When fifteen minutes expired, the students were arrested and their conviction for common law breach of the peace was upheld by the South Carolina Supreme Court.

See also Assembly and Association, Citizenship, Freedom of; Race and Racism; Speech and the Press.

Harold J. Spaeth