“ When citizens press their demonstrations in behalf of a cause (however worthy they deem their objectives to be) beyond the bounds of fully and effectively delivering their message and reach the stage that they materially and harmfully interfere with the orderly business and lawful activities of others who are acting in public or private capacities, then the conduct is disorderly and assembly for carrying it out is unlawful. ”

“ Such freedoms are jealously guarded and when exercised in good faith and in good order may not be lawfully, interfered with by governmental action. However, it is not a license to take into one's own hands the enforcement of law or by excessive harassment, effect coercion and acceptance of one's convictions and interpre ations of legal rights by governmental entities whose policies are in conflict. ”

“ The appellants take the view that the segregation practices with regard to waiting rooms, rest room facilities, and restaurant or eating facilities at the airport were violative of constitutional guarantees of equal protection of the law. ”

“ The sole purpose of such a course of harassment was to goad the municipality and its restaurant lessee to open the restaurant and gratify the appellants' wishes that they be served in the style and manner they deemed to be their right.
Controversies between citizens and governmental units are not unique. In nearly every instance there is a conflict in what the citizen contends he has a right to claim and the governmental entity which would deny the validity of such claim. ”

“ Such a procedure is a form of anarchy which, if it becomes an accepted practice, can have only the effect of seriously weakening orderly government.
The appellants, prior to the reading of the riot act to them, had achieved their announced objectives. They had observed both at the bus station and the airport the integration or lack of it of the waiting room, rest room and restaurant facilities. They had very effectively borne witness as clergymen and otherwise of their sympathy with the struggle to obtain desegregation of the various facilities of interstate travel. ”

“ The appellants are clergymen, two being rabbis and the others being ordained ministers of several Protestant denominations. They are residents of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts or Connecticut. Some of them are of the white race and some are negroes. About June 12 or 13, 1961 they, together with eight other clergymen from the same general area, departed from Washington, D.C. by interstate common carrier bus for a so-called 'Freedom Ride' into Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. The bus ride terminated in Tallahassee June 15, 1961. ”

“ To accommodate and facilitate those legitimate objectives the law enforcement agencies of city, county and state had given protection against potential violence or other disorder from groups or individuals who resented the activities of the appellants. This protection was afforded at the bus station, at the airport on the afternoon of June 15, on the evening of June 15 when the appellants left the airport to come into town and on the following morning when they returned to the airport purportedly to take an early plane. ”

“ The pertinent portions of the statute, adopted as an ordinance, are:
'If any number of persons * * * are unlawfully, riotously or tumultuously assembled in any * * * city or municipality * * * any * * * police officer of said city or municipality * * * shall go among the persons so assembled * * * and shall in the name of the state command all the persons so assembled immediately and peaceably to disperse; and if such persons do not thereupon immediately and peaceably disperse, said (officer) shall command the assistance of all persons in seizing, arresting and securing such persons in custody ”

“ At 8:20 A.M. they sought, and ultimately obtained, reservations on a National Airlines flight scheduled to depart at 1:47 P.M. that day, but cancelled just prior to noon.
During these periods there continued to be movements and gatherings of groups of people in cars and there was a hostility and open resentment against the conduct and attitudes of the appellants. A considerable number of police, sheriff's deputies and highway patrolmen had been detailed to prevent disorder. ”