Montgomery Police Commissioner Sullivan files $500,000 libel suit against the New York Times and four Black civil rights clergymen

L.B. Sullivan, Commissioner of Public Affairs for the City of Montgomery and supervisor of the police department, filed a $500,000 libel suit in Alabama circuit court against the New York Times and four Black clergymen — Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, S.S. Seay Sr., and J.E. Lowery — who had been listed as endorsers of the "Heed Their Rising Voices" advertisement. Sullivan did not claim to have been named in the ad; he argued that the description of police conduct implicitly referred to him as the official responsible for the Montgomery Police Department. Fellow Montgomery officials filed additional suits seeking $1.5 million more from the Times.