What Happened
On November 13, 1957, Longview, Texas, Police Chief Roy Stone phoned four NAACP officers at home, the Rev. S.Y. Nixon, I.S. White, E.C. Hawkins and Rance James, and told them to produce the organization's membership records or go to jail. Within 24 hours he arrested all four under a new city ordinance written for exactly this purpose. Bail was set at $200 each.
Why It Matters
Membership lists were the NAACP's lifeblood and its members' greatest risk. A name made public could cost a teacher her job or a farmer his loan, or bring night riders. Southern officials across the region used "disclosure" laws to break the organization without banning it outright. The Supreme Court finally shut the tactic down in NAACP v. Alabama (1958) and Bates v. Little Rock (1960).
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