Hooper’s Sit-In and Bell v. Maryland

Subject

Hooper’s Restaurant on the southwest corner of Charles and Fayette Street, unknown photographer, 1954, Courtesy Baltimore Museum of Industry Archives.

Description

On June 17, 1960, students from Dunbar High School, many part of the Civic Interest Group, staged one of Baltimore’s earliest sit-ins at Hooper’s Restaurant. The students persisted despite the owner turning off the lights and air conditioning on them. Police arrested the students for trespassing, and were charged with violating Maryland’s criminal trespass law. Lawyers representing the students appealed the case to the Maryland Supreme Court, which upheld their conviction. The case was brought before the United States Supreme Court (Bell v. Maryland) in 1964, which reversed their conviction. Bell v. Maryland laid the foundation for the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Source

“By the way, they shut off all the electricity, which means that the food was spoiled. It was the last day of school so that it was warm. So they were trying to make it uncomfortable of course. And then when he wasn’t successful in having us leave after discussing how good a guy he was and how he hired Blacks and how it wasn’t him, it was the business that he had to be concerned about, that didn’t work, he then called the police and then of course the police then came in and read the trespassing statute and asked us to leave.” — Judge Robert Bell Oral History

Geolocation

Collection

The Doris M. Johnson Project: Civil Rights Movement Series

Citation

“Hooper’s Sit-In and Bell v. Maryland,” Passion and Purpose, accessed April 29, 2024, https://passionandpurpose.omeka.net/items/show/7.