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movement- a movement that had, after all, sprung up independently of the local
branches of the NAACP and other nationally-connected organizations. Houston's
familiarity with developments in Baltimore through his frequent visits to the Forum
was no doubt a factor in his decision to become directly involved. Although Forum
legal advisor W.A.C. Hughes and his law partner, longtime Baltimore civil rights
lawyer, Walter T. McGuinn, subsequently handled most of the case, they did so in
close consultation with Houston.
The case, which everyone had expected to be settled quickly, dragged on for
months, as postponement followed postponement. First Judge Stump, then Walter
McGuinn, then store owner Aaron Samuelson became ill, each for several weeks.
Then Judge Stump died. The case was passed back to Judge Owens (who issued
the injunction in the first place). He set the hearing for March 23, postponed it a
week, then postponed it until April 13 — after Passover. In the interim, the level of
popular interest began to wane, and W.A.C. Hughes, reflecting the movement
leadership's uneasiness, publicly complained about the last postponement.
Finally, on May 24, the hearing ended and the judge rendered his decision.
The main legal issue involved was whether the Buy Where You Can Work
picketing was an economic dispute, like a workers' strike, and thus legal under the
recently passed Norris-LaGuardia Act, or whether it was a racial dispute. The
movement lawyers claimed the former, the merchants' lawyers claimed the latter.
In addition, the merchants' lawyers argued that the picketers had sought to replace
all white employees with Black employees and that they had used force and
intimidation; the movement's lawyers denied these charges. The judge agreed with
the merchants, proclaimed that the pickets had used illegal coercion, and made the
injunction permanent. He went on to lecture the defendants before a court house
packed with their supporters, calling them "colored persons of the highest types,
well educated and essentially religious," feigning astonishment that they "could have
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