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	Radio Host: WYSO Radio News.	0:00
	Bill Miller: Well, originally, I was demonstrating to show that this is still America and that Mr. Gegner has certain inherent rights which are being violated. But, I think I must comment. The people up here who are protesting against us should be made to serve time in the service overseas where they would face a couple of communist bullets.
	[Sounds of Morse code. Orchestra music begins]
	Radio Host: WYSO News now presents a special report on the Yellow Springs barbershop controversy. Background, the latest developments, the legal implications. A tourist passing through Yellow Springs would probably find it similar to most of villages. Like other Southwestern Ohio towns, it has a tree-shaded main street and a small but neatly maintained business district. Surrounding this community of four thousand is gently rolling farmland. Yellow Springs is the home of Antioch College, noted in academic circles for its liberal arts program. Some fifteen hundred students are enrolled Antioch. The village of several local industries. They manufacture quality product, highly thought of in the competitive business world. Yellow Springs is not too much different from most American towns. It has a PTA, a League of Women Voters, and the Little League. But during the long hot summer of 1963, Yellow Springs, Ohio was catapulted into international headlines.
	The reason: a controversy over a local barber’s refusal to cut Negro hair. This town has three barbershops. Two of them serve Negro customers. The third one doesn't. And that barbershop belongs to Louis Gegner, who by now is probably the best-known barber in the United States. Gegner refuses to cut Negro hair. He claims he doesn't know how. He has held firm to his position ever since attempts to integrate his barbershop were made in 1960. When the barber refused to cut the hair of Yellow Springs Negro that year, charges of discrimination were brought against Gegner under a 1948 Village Public Accommodations Act. The barber was tried in Greene County Common Pleas Court. On August 24, 1960, WYSO listeners heard this report:	2:18
	[1960 report begins]
	Mike Schneiderman: Yellow Springs barber Louis Gegner was found guilty today by a twelve-man jury: Guilty of discriminating in his local barbershop. That verdict followed two hours of deliberation this morning in Xenia, Ohio. That trial began yesterday morning. Immediately following the reading of the verdict, Mr. Gegner's attorney, Harry Kyle of Xenia, asked the court to throw out the verdict on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Such a motion, referred to in legal jargon as a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, if accepted could result in a new trial. judge John [Kirchhoff?] who heard the trial, is responsible for a decision on the matter.
	Radio Host: That was WYSO newsman Mike Schneiderman, August 24, 1960. Gegner never appealed the decision. He was convicted of discrimination, and judge Kirchhoff fined him $1, but Gegner has never paid it. Despite the Common Pleas Court jury verdict, Gegner persisted in his policy. He still refused to serve Negroes at his local barbershop. In 1961, Yellow Springs Negro Paul Graham charged the barber with discrimination under the new state Public Accommodations Act. An Ohio civil rights commission hearing board found the barber guilty of discrimination, and the cease-and-desist order was issued against Gegner. Gegner appealed. The case on the desk of Judge Warren C. Young of Lebanon on assignment to the Greene County Common Pleas Court for over year. Local civil rights partisans were wondering if judge on whatever reach a decision. In late April 1963 an Antioch College student civil rights group decided it could wait no longer for Judge Young’s ruling.
	They staged their first set in, aimed at integrating Gegner’s barbershop on April 27th. And that was a tense day in Yellow Springs. Fire hoses were used to clear the area near Gegner's barbershop of onlookers. A leader of the Antioch committee for racial equality was arrested and charged with conspiracy under the state Riot Act. There's been no court action on the matter. Three days later, Antioch College students once again staged a sit in at Gegner’s barbershop, but no arrests were made and the barber was forced to close early. Then, on May 3rd the long-awaited decision from Judge Young was finally handed down. Young, sitting on assignment with the Greene County Common Pleas Court, ruled in Gegner's favor. The judge struck down sections of the state Public Accommodations Act applying to barbershops. He ruled it violates a barber’s civil rights to force them to cut Negro hair if he doesn't have the necessary skills. The next day, 500 people marched through the streets of Yellow Springs to protest Judge Young’s decision. On Saturday, May 18th the Antioch College student civil rights group once again attempted to integrate Gegner’s barbershop. They staged a sit in. By the time the day was over, nineteen sit-in demonstrators and been arrested. Later, barber Lewis Gegner told what happened.	4:48
	Lewis Gegner: I asked all the students, I said, boys, I’m asking you to leave the shop or I will file charges against you.
	Radio Host: The nineteen sit-in demonstrators were charged with trespassing by the barber. On Monday, May 20th Antioch College students picketed Gegner’s barbershop. But the picketing was halted when an injunction was issued by Judge Warren C, Young. The injunction prohibiting trespassing at the barbershop, and ruled out mass demonstrations. It limited picketing in front of Gegner's barbershop to four persons at any one time. The case of the sit-in demonstrators arrested at the barbershop May 18th came up for Greene County court jury trial in late July. All but one of the sit-in demonstrators arrested Gegner's barbershop May 18th were on trial. One requested a separate trial, and that case is yet to be heard. But at 3:30am, July 24th, after nearly ten hours of deliberation, a Greene County court jury returned their verdicts for the eighteen demonstrators on trial. The decision of the seven man five woman all-white jury was summarized by County Court Judge Reynold C. Heflin.
	Judge Heflin: The jury has just returned a finding of seventeen guilty and one got the not guilt.	7:14
	Radio Host: The not-guilty verdict was returned against David M Jackson of Central State College in Wilberforce, the only Negro who participated in the sit in. Testimony during the trial indicated that Jackson was the only sit in demonstrator would actually asked for a haircut. Courtroom observers speculated that the jury had cleared Jackson for trespassing charges because he had asked for a haircut and therefore was in the barbershop on May 18th for a lawful purpose. This logic was to play an important part in the next attempt to integrate Gegner’s barbershop. An attempt was made only three days after the conclusion of the trespassing trial. This time Antioch College students weren’t involved. Yellow Springs residents took the initiative. On Saturday, July 27th five village residents, three whites and to Negroes, entered Gegner’s barbershop. Mindful of the county court jury verdict, all five requested haircuts. They said they weren't sit-in demonstrators, they just wanted haircuts. But Barbara Gegner refused to cut the hair of the Negroes, and had the entire group arrested for trespassing. The five village residents of not yet been tried, nor are they been cited for contempt for May 20th injunction, which prohibits trespassing at the barbershop. After the arrest of the five Yellow Springs residents at the barbershop, July 27th, local attempts to integrate Gegner’s business by direct action came to a standstill. Both sides began steeling themselves for the long, costly bottle in the courts. But civil rights demonstrators continue to picket the barbershop. For several months, members of the village civil rights group, Action, had picketed Gegner’s shop on Saturdays. Student demonstrators from the Antioch committee for racial equality picked up the ball on weekdays. The picketing was limited to four persons at any one time to comply with the terms of an injunction issued May 20th by Judge Warren C Young of Lebanon. Judge Young’s injunction forbid mass demonstrations at the barbershop. But following the July 27th arrest at Gegner’s barbershop, Antioch College students increased the size of their picket line. For a two-day period, the Antioch College student civil rights group placed between five and six demonstrators on the picket line in front of the barbershop. The move was apparently designed to test Judge Young’s injunction limiting barbershop picketing to four persons at any one time. The student group seemed the feel of the judge's injunction was invalid. But the judge didn't think so, and on July 31st Greene County Sheriff Russell Bradley told WYSO news that his office intended to enforce the court order.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: If we find out that the injection is being violated, we will investigate and try to obtain the necessary information at the scene of the picket line, and if we find that there is a violation, we will report the violation of the proper authorities for their action.	9:57
	Radio Host: After Sheriff Bradley said he would enforce Judge Young's injunction limiting picketing at Gegner;s barbershop, student civil rights group got cold feet. They call off their picketing. When Barbara Lewis Gegner took a four-day vacation in Wisconsin, the Antioch committee for racial equality decided there was no point in picketing a closed shop. Nights became cooler. A page was ripped off the calendar. It was now September. Examinations were now coming up at Antioch College, and the Antioch committee for racial equality was trying to figure out how it would pay the legal expenses for all the court cases it had gotten itself involved in. There were no plans for any sit-ins at Gegner’s barbershop in the works. Village civil rights groups took no action either. Picketing at Gegner’s shop nearly seized, except for token picket on Saturdays. Lewis Gegner's barbershop is no longer the target sit in demonstrations. Gone were the picket signs, the police cars, the crowd of newsmen. Gegner could once again run his business without interference, like any ordinary American businessman. Until now, all the demonstrations, those by Yellow Springs residents and Antioch College students, were against barber Lewis Gegner. They were protesting the barber's refusal to cut Negro hair. The civil rights demonstrators are supporting the principle that a man is entitled to be served in any place of public accommodation regardless of race. Barber Lewis Gegner is upholding the principle of individual property rights; that a private businessman should be allowed to choose his customers as he sees fit. The issue is drawn. The courts must decide ultimately which principle is more important, which one the American legal system will follow in years to come. But at the moment the issue was unresolved. There is support for both sides of the question, and early this month WYSO news learned that demonstrators intend to come to Yellow Springs to back barber Lewis Gegner. A high official of the National Association for the Advancement of White People disclosed that four-man contingent from his group would come here to pick it in support of the barber. The demonstration was scheduled for Saturday, September 7th. The night before, WYSO News asked William F. Miller, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of White people, if this group really would demonstrate at Gegner’s barbershop the next day.
	Bill Miller: We intend to picket sometime tomorrow. I’m not sure of the exact time; however, we have been given permission by the authorities to come up, as long as we limited our pickets to four people.	12:41
	Radio Host: But there was a split in the ranks. The head of the Dayton chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of White People didn't want anything to do with picketing at Gegner’s barbershop. Guy Cordell, president of the Dayton chapter, told WYSO News:
	Guy Cordell: I was against the picketing of the barbershop because I don’t think that we should lower ourselves and our standards to whatever the CORE and the NAACP does. I don’t think it help us out any, trying to do the same thing they’re doing. We were trying to do it in another way. It was just somebody’s idea that they should do it. They had gone to Pennsylvania and taken care of that colored family that had moved into a white district; they was going to do something like that.
	Radio Host: At 6:00am the next morning, all quiet and Xenia Avenue, Yellow Springs Main Street. Barber Lewis Gegner is an early riser, and he was cleaning the windows of the shop, one of the showplaces in the business district. The only other people around, were the proprietor of a nearby luncheonette and three reporters in WYSO news. Tt was rumored that demonstrators in the National Association for the Advancement of White People would arrive in Yellow Springs early in the morning. They did. At 6:40am, two cars parked in front of the barbershop. Out stepped William F. Miller, executive secretary of the Cincinnati-based group, and three other members of the organization, who came from Columbus. Immediately, they formed a four-man picket line in front of Gegner's barbershop. They carried signs reading “Lewis Gegner, a real American,” “Free enterprise: an American Heritage” and “Stop the Slaughter of American Men by Fighting the Communists.” Asked for comment about the demonstrators, Lewis Gegner said, I don't have any statement to make. A Yellow Springs police car arrived on the scene five minutes after the picketers from the National Association for the Advancement of White People showed up. A few minutes later, four more members of the organization arrived. WYSO News spoke with one of them.
	WYSO News Reporter: Where are you from, sir.	14:50
	Picketer 1: Columbus
	WYSO News Reporter: Columbus. You came here today to demonstrate?
	Picketer: To Picket.
	WYSO News Reporter: To Picket. In support of Mr. Gegner?
	Picketer 1: Right. In support of Mr. Gegner.
	Radio Host: But the executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of White People said he hadn't invited these would-be demonstrators. William F. Miller claimed it only authorize three other demonstrators to come with him to Yellow Springs. Miller stressed that he didn't want to violate the May 20th Common Pleas court injunction limiting picketing at the barbershop the four persons at any one time. The demonstrators and the National Association for the Advancement of White People beat a local civil rights organization to the scene and placed the legal number of picketers outside the barbershop. When members of the Yellow Springs civil rights group Action showed up at 7:15 am, Miller and his group were already demonstrating at the barbershop. The Action demonstrators held a quick conference. They decided against violating the court order by placing any more mental the picket line since it already reached the legal limit. Instead, of the Yellow Springs civil rights group crossed the street. Bearing placards condemning racial discrimination, they picketed directly opposite Gegner’s barbershop. Meanwhile, the demonstrators from the National Association for the Advancement of White People continued picketing Gegner shop. WYSO News asked William F Miller, head of the Cincinnati-based group, why he was picketing.
	Bill Miller: Well, originally, I was demonstrating to show that this is still America and that Mr. Gegner has certain inherent rights which are being violated. But, since I’ve been up here, I think I must comment. The people up here who are protesting against us should be made to serve time in the service overseas where they would face a couple of communist bullets. I’m sure that they would change their mind and their opinion about what we are doing.
	WYSO News Reporter: Are you aware of the injunction, sir, which was issued by Common Please Court, which limits picketing to four persons at any time?
	Bill Miller: I’m fully aware of it. As I said before, we contacted the federal authorities and we’re completely in the clear.
	WYSO News Reporter: How do you mean?
	Bill Miller: Just what I said, we are completely in the clear, we wouldn’t do anything illegal.
	WYSO News Reporter: You said earlier you have the status of interstate travelers and therefore the justice department or federal authorities would protect you.
	Bill Miller: I have c—the only thing I will say is that I have contact—contacted Mr. Kennedy’s department, from there the lawyers have to kind of take it over.
	Radio Host: When Miller said that the civil rights demonstrators across the street should be made to face communist bullets, we wondered what he meant. So WYSO newsman David Gregory asked him:	17:16
	David Gregory: Could you tell us the relationship you see between speaking about communist bullets and the people who are demonstrating against Mr. Gegner’s policy?
	Bill Miller: Yes, I was just talking to one of your leaders over here, he was telling me about freedom of speech and everything else, but he seems to forget that just last week three of our young boys died for his right to make this speech. There is no…. I just can’t understand his type of logic.
	Radio Host: By this time, more local law enforcement officials were on the scene to ward all possible trouble. As the morning wore on, the picket line of village civil rights organization directly opposite the barbershop grew bigger and bigger. This reporter talked with Greene County Sheriff Russell Bradley.
	WYSO News Reporter: Do you think the picketing on the other side of the street by members of the village civil rights organization Action would be a violation of the Common Pleas court injunction?
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: I doubt very much; however, I’m going to get legal advice on that. I doubt, though, myself that they are in violation.
	Radio Host: The news that pickets from the National Association for the Advancement of White People were at Gegner’s barbershop spread quickly. The student civil rights group at Antioch College rally their forces. Students began to join village residents on the counter-picket line across from Gegner’s shop. As far as Miller was concerned, they should've stayed away.
	Bill Miller: If they would experience young boys their age dying over in Vietnam they would certainly think twice before they come out here and picket without knowing what they were picketing about. Power and the grabbing of power by people is what this whole thing is about. These boys will be their pawns, they will be slaughtered, they don’t realize it, but they will be. They represent the capitalist system whether they are away of it or not, and when—if these people come in control they will be slaughtered, there is no two ways about it.
	WYSO News Reporter: Are you referring to the Antioch students who have picketed here at times?
	Bill Miller: Yes.
	Radio Host: The executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of White People held a brief parley with barber Lewis Gegner. Emerging from the barbershop, Miller told newsmen:
	Bill Miller: Gegner has agreed to become an honorary member. We are extending him an honorary membership and he has agreed to accept it and of course we will extend our legal aid to him and if we become financially able we will give him all the financial aid we can.
	Radio Host: Describing the barber is a very good, strong man, Miller said the country needs more like him. The official of the National Association for the Advancement of White People dispelled fears that his organization was anti- Negro. Miller said we would allow a Negro to join as long as he is an American defending the Constitution. But the official said Negroes couldn't belong to his group if they were members of militant civil rights organizations like CORE or the NAACP. Miller felt veterans were best able to protect the American heritage, so WYSO newsman Dan Wershow, asked Miller about his own war record:
	Dan Wershow: Mr. Miller, could you tell us anything about your war record? Are you a veteran?
	Bill Miller: Yes, I served four years in service, nothing outstanding. I have seen an awful amount of death from it, but there is nothing outstanding about my record.
	Dan Wershow: You were on the European front?
	Bill Miller: Yes, I was in Italy for a year.
	Radio Host: By 10 o'clock some-thirty-five civil rights demonstrators were counter picketing Miller's group across the street from the barbershop. In the picket line were Yellow Springs residents, both white and Negro, Antioch College students and even mothers carrying small children in their arms. But what no one knew was yet whether they were violating Judge Warren C Young's May 20th injunction limiting picketing at Gegner's barbershop. So WYSO newsman David Gregory asked the Greene County Sheriff, Russell Bradley.	20:37
	David Gregory: Sheriff Bradley, are the civil rights demonstrators across the street from Gegner’s barbershop in Yellow Spring in violation of Judge Young’s injunction?
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: I don’t think so
	David Gregory: Has this been clarified by legal authorities?
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: That’s right, they are not in violation of the court order.
	David Gregory: How many pickets can they have over across the street?
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Across the street?
	David Gregory: Yes.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: As far as the court order, the court order does not limit any pickets across the street.
	Radio Host: But the counter picket line set up by civil rights demonstrators soon dwindled. Most of them went to a nearby school for a hurriedly called meeting. There, they decided to test the court order by placing another man in the picket line with four demonstrators from the National Association for the Advancement of White People. That would make five demonstrators in front of the barbershop, one beyond the legal limit. Presumably, then, Sheriff Bradley would have to arrest all the demonstrators on the picket line, whether they were for Gegner or against him. Yellow Springs Negro Al Bennett joined the four-man picket line of the National Association for the Advancement of White People at 10:30am. But one of the demonstrators dropped out of the picket line.
	Picketer 2: There’s only four; I dropped out.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Alright, then that’s four and that’s legal.
	Radio Host: The picket line in front of Gegner's barbershop was now legal again. There were only four people in it: three pickets supporting Gegner; one opposing him. Many spectators had gathered Sheriff Bradley had tried to clear them away.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: You people who are not concerned with this, I want you to move back, keep this open here.
	Radio Host: One of the demonstrators from the National Association for the Advancement of White People didn't like the fact that a Yellow Springs Negro had joined the picket line in front of Gegner's barbershop. He argued with Greene County Sheriff Russell Bradley.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: I am really concerned that we don’t have any violence or anything like that.	22:49
	Bill Miller: That is the uppermost in my mind.
	Picketer 3: This is not right. This, just what happened.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Well, sir, I am not the one who makes that decision.
	Picketer 3: No, no.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: I am here to enforce the court order. And the rest of the officers are here to try to see that there’s no trouble.
	Radio Host: But William F. Miller assured newsmen that he wouldn't put any more of his men on the picket line because he didn't want to violate the court order.
	Bill Miller: I have agreed with every law enforcing—enforcement agency that I will not break the law. I have assured the sheriff there would be no more of my men, only four people. Only time will tell what we will do. If I get made enough I’ll bring sixteen men in.
	Radio Host: A few minutes later, another Yellow Springs Negro, Mrs. Fay Greene, joined the picket line. Now the line was up to five again: three demonstrators from the National Association for the Advancement of White People; two from the village civil rights group Action. The picket line was one above the legal limit, and Sheriff Bradley asked that it be reduced to four. But he didn't notice that one of the demonstrators from the National Association for the Advancement of White people had dropped off the line. A WYSO reporter pointed this out to the sheriff.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Now, again, I’ll have to—if we’re going to continue with five pickets—I’ll have to read the restraining order.
	WYSO News Reporter: There are only four of us.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Sir?
	WYSO News Reporter: 1, 2, 3, 4.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Oh, we’ve got 1, 2, 3, 4 now? Oh, we’re legal.
	Radio Host: But the picket line was legal very long. William F. Miller, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of White People, picked up a picket sign and got back on the line. Sheriff Bradley counted again:
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Well, now look: preferably, we would rather get by here and not make any arrests if we can. I—as I explained to you a few minutes ago, five is illegal and we cannot have but four pickets. Now that’s what Judge Young from the counties has ruled. We cannot have over four. And I’ll be glad to read the restraining order, and we will have to limit the picketing to four.
	Radio Host: But Miller didn't want to leave the picket line.
	Bill Miller: Sheriff, I have no intention of breaking your law. As I understood it, you told me I—the first ones here would have prerogative over the marching. I assured you that I would not have more than four people. I think this is my right as a law-abiding citizen. Now, if I have to be arrested, I am quite willing to be arrested.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: Well, sir, I, I cannot say who is allowed to picket and who is not. Otherwise, you people were here, you were marching with four people; however, there’s been other people in. It would be the same way if four people was from the other side and some of you people joined them, then we have to enforce this restraining order. Its—that has to be done because that is a ruling from a court, and I am charged with enforcing this court order.	25:33
	Radio Host: Once again, Sheriff Bradley requested that the picket line be limited to four people.
	Sheriff Russell Bradley: I appreciate it—as I say, I prefer not to make any arrests. If some of you the people would cut down, I don’t say who, I would appreciate to see only four people in the picket line. If it goes over than that regardless, well I’ve got to enforce the law.
	Bill Miller: If we move out our civil rights will be violated. Therefore, I’m sorry but I will not disperse. It will have to be them.