Katie Ruth Anderson v. J. J. Nosser, James Bradley v. J. J. Nosser

GOLDBERG, Circuit Judge:

Our locale is Natchez, Mississippi, where the mood in the fall of A.D. 1965 was anything but irenic. Our story concerns the arrest and subsequent detention of participants in racial protest demonstrations. According to the undisputed facts those arrested were subjected to sub-human treatment which beggars justification and taxes credulity. Finding ourselves unable to sustain the verdict of the jury below, we reverse and render judgment as to liability of the defendants and remand for the assessment of damages due the plaintiffs.

I

While many peripheral matters in this…