Md. looks to repeal freedom riders law

Published: Nov. 30, 2008 at 3:16 PM
Order reprints
CAMBRIDGE, Md., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A Maryland law meant to prevent civil rights-era "freedom riders" from encouraging blacks to protest segregation should be eliminated, legislators say.

The "Jim Crow" law, passed in 1964 at the height of the civil rights movement, was a response to race riots in the Eastern Shore town of Cambridge, Md. It outlawed Freedom Riders -- protesters who traveled on buses into the segregated South -- from giving bus fare or any other payment to local blacks who planned to participate in anti-discrimination protests, The Sun newspaper in Baltimore reported Sunday.

Although the law has never been enforced, Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has said that courts would likely find that the statute is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Maryland legislative leaders told The Sun they plan to introduce legislation to repeal the law during the state General Assembly session that begins in January, and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has indicated he would support the bill.

Civil rights riots hit Cambridge in June 1963, and Gov. J. Millard Tawes imposed martial law on the city, the newspaper said. U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy called the Maryland parties to Washington to mediate a desegregation agreement.


© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.



GM sells assets, vows focus on customers (2 min)
Activist: Protest due for G8 summit (6 min)
Young U.K. homeowners aided by parents (10 min)
Scientists identify allergy-causing gene (18 min)
UPI NewsTrack Business (20 min)
Geithner pushes to regulate derivatives (28 min)
France's Bruni pledges earthquake help (32 min)
fark
Mothers Against Drunk Driving not amused with brewery for naming their beers after New Jersey Turnpike...
New York Times forced to remove several photos and issue an apology due to a reader seeing a few...
Physical injuries caused by texting on the rise. EVERYBODY PAN - - (thud)
In an effort to garner public sympathy, striking public union boss refers to citizens that cut their...
Headmistress accused of using school funds to pay for Caribbean holiday. Jamaica? No, she did it...
Cheeky monkeys at The Register react to news of Mel Gibson-Jodie Foster collaboration: "We came"...