Woman entering courtroom during a hearing about a Dallas civil rights protest

Object number2005.010.0156

Date06/16/1964

ClassificationsPhotographs

Creator Dallas County Sheriff's Department

ObjectPhotograph (b&w)

Credit LineDallas County Sheriff's Department Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumPaper

Dimensions3 1/2 x 5 in. (8.9 x 12.7 cm)

Terms

Collections

DescriptionBlack and white photograph of a woman entering a courtroom at the Dallas County Courthouse during a hearing related to a civil rights protest at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Dallas in June 1964. A sign on the woman's purse reads "WHITE ONLY." Piccadilly Cafeteria management tried to stop the ongoing protest through legal action. Lawyers on both sides argued over a restraining order that forced protestors to stay fifty feet away from the cafeteria entrance. Over the course of twenty-eight days, a total of seventeen demonstrators were arrested, although all charges were dropped when the dispute was settled by an independent mediator out of court. This is one of many photos taken by the Dallas County Sheriff's Department during the month-long civil rights protest at the Piccadilly Cafeteria in Dallas, Texas, in 1964.

Curatorial Commentary

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza received two file drawers of Jack Ruby-related material from the Dallas County Sheriff's Department in 2005. At the back of one of the file drawers was a stack of black and white photographs which turned out to be survelliance photographs taken by Dallas deputy sheriffs of a twenty-eight-day civil rights protest at the Piccadilly Cafeteria on Commerce Street in downtown Dallas. - Stephen Fagin, Curator