On July 3, 1950, Letter Carrier Robert M. Dawson Jr. and his four small children were ordered off the municipal beach at Baltimore's Fort Smallwood Park and sent home. Reason: they are Negroes. The Dawsons took the case to court, and last December Baltimore's Federal District Judge Roszel C. Thomsen ruled that the family had no right to be at the Fort Smallwood beach, because Baltimore maintains separate but equal swimming facilities for Negroes. Judge Thomsen held that the U.S. Supreme Court, in its historic decision banning segregation in public schools (TIME, May 24), specifically "refrained from deciding ....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
