Darcus Rene’e Garvey BA

She stood in an Alabama courtroom in 1963 and refused to answer the prosecutor. Not because of the question. Because of the name he used. He called her Mary while every white witness that day was called Mr, Mrs or Miss. She told him her name was Miss Hamilton, and that she would answer when she was addressed that way. The judge held her in contempt, fined her fifty dollars, and jailed her. She appealed. Alabama's Supreme Court upheld it. So the NAACP took it to the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1964 the Court reversed — in a short unsigned opinion. A courtroom may not address a Black witness with less courtesy than a white one. It is known in the law as the Miss Mary case. Think about what she actually did. She was already a civil rights worker in a dangerous state. She could have answered, finished her testimony and gone home. She spent time in jail over one word of address — and made it a federal rule for every courtroom in the country.