New York Times v. Sullivan

Alleged Defamatory Content in "Heed Their Rising Voices":

....truckloads of police armed with shotguns and tear-gas ringed the Alabama State College Campus.
Again and again the Southern violators have answered Dr. King's peaceful protests with intimidation and violence. They have bombed his home almost killing his wife and child. They have assaulted his person. They have arrested him seven times--for "speeding," "loitering" and similar "offenses." And now they have charged him with "perjury"--a felony under which they could imprison him for ten years.

Statements alleged to be "of and concerning" L.B. Sullivan, the Montgomery Alabama city commissioner in charge of supervising the Police Department.

In Montgomery, Alabama, after students sang "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" on the State Capitol steps . . .

False. They sang "The Star-Spangled banner."

...their leaders were expelled from school....

False. They were expelled after a lunch counter sit-in.

...and truckloads of police armed with shotguns and tear-gas ringed the Alabama State College Campus.

Exaggeration. They did not "ring" the campus.

When the entire student body protested to state authorities by refusing to re-register, their dining hall was padlocked in an attempted to starve them into submission.

False.

Back