Background
In 1963, Mary Hamilton, 28, was a Field Secretary for the Congress of Racial Equality in Alabama. Along with hundreds of others, she was arrested during civil rights protests in Gadsden. At a court hearing on June 25 that challenged the legitimacy of those arrests, she refused to answer questions on the witness stand until she was addressed with the same courtesy accorded white witnesses.
At that time, in the South and in many other parts of the nation, it was customary for judges and prosecutors to address white witnesses by last name and courtesy titles such as "Mr Jones," or "Mrs. Smith," while addressing all nonwhite witnesses by the first name without honorific. When Etowah County Solicitor Rayburn addressed Mary Hamilton by her first name only, she refused to answer his questions and said, "I will not answer a question until I am addressed correctly." When she continued to insist on receiving the same courtesy accorded white witnesses, Judge Cunningham held her in contempt of court and sentenced her to 5 days in jail and a $50 fine. She was taken immediately to prison without any opportunity of defending herself against the charge.
After serving the 5 days, she refused to pay the fine and was allowed out on bond to appeal the contempt conviction. The Alabama Supreme Court denied her appeal. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund appealed her case to the Supreme Court in Hamilton v. Alabama, 376 U.S. 650, which is sometimes referred to as the "Miss Mary" case.
Read more about this topic: Mary Hamilton And "Miss Mary" Case
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