Law Commons^™

Freedom Of Assembly And Racial Demonstrations, Richard W. Ervin

Cleveland State Law Review

We have chosen to discuss and undertake to determine the precise point at which an assemblage of persons engaged in a racial demonstration loses constitutional protection and becomes instead an unlawful assembly, punishable as such under the common law or under state statutes or ordinances which embody the common law. To accomplish this purpose, we shall first attempt to define the crime of "unlawful assembly"; then we shall discuss breach of the peace because it is so intimately connected with the offense of unlawful assembly. This article will conclude with examples of situations in which racial demonstrations are, or are …