The Court Case

One week after the demonstration Reverend Alfred Sampson, an aide to Martin Luther King Jr. came to the Café Raven.  Dabaghi did not serve him but did serve some of his companions.  This was because Dabaghi said that Reverend Sampson was not fair and honorable with his tactics to get the Café Raven closed down.  Dabaghi also said that Sampson’s tactics may have gone the wrong way and created a violent showdown.  Sampson was trying to get a point across that something was going to have to change or some other type of demonstration or march was going to happen in the streets of Huntsville.

The whole sit-in situation was then taken to court.  The demonstrators who had been arrested on July 25 on counts of unlawful assembly and disturbing the peace were tried at the Walker County courthouse by County Judge Amos Gates.  Each of the demonstrators plead not guilty to the charges of unlawful assembly and disturbing the peace.  Each one of the demonstrators  were found guilty of the charges and were fined one hundred dollars except for Reverend William Boyd Oliver who was fined two-hundred and fifty dollars for his lead role in the sit-in, and Gilbert Campos who made bail in Houston after being taken there on three different traffic warrants.  All of the sit-in members were released on $200 bail in Huntsville.[4]

After the Walker County Court found all of the demonstrators to be guilty of their charges, the demonstrators appealed their case to the Texas Supreme Court. The demonstrators were found guilty under this code.