Peterson v. City of Greenville, 373 U.S., was a United States Supreme Court case that maintained the illegality of race-based segregation in public places.

Ten African American student protesters were arrested and convicted in Greenville, South Carolina for attempting to purchase food at an S.H.

After the African American students arrived at the restaurant and sat at the lunch counter, the manager abruptly closed the store and instructed the protesters to leave.

[7] When the protesters entered the restaurant and sat at a lunch counter designed for 59 people, the manager demanded that they leave, declaring the store closed and turning off the lights.

The petitioners asserted that the state of South Carolina had denied them their First and Fourth Amendment rights to free speech and equal protection under the law respectively.

In his opinion, Harlan wrote:[1][3] The evidence in this case establishes beyond doubt that the Kress management's decision to exclude petitioners from the lunch counter was made because they were Negroes.

It cannot be disputed that under our decisions "private conduct abridging individual rights does no violence to the Equal Protection Clause unless to some significant extent the State in any of its manifestations has been found to have become involved in it."

It cannot be denied that here the City of Greenville, an agency of the State, has provided by its ordinance that the decision as to whether a restaurant facility is to be [373 U.S. 244, 248] operated on a desegregated basis is to be reserved to it.