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Edward KocheEdward Koche
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Session:         Page of 617

Q:

This is a continuation of the interview with Congressman Ed Koch on December 23, 1975.

Koch:

I have to go back the next day to defend these youngster. And I'm frightened, but it's my job. So I go back the next day and pick them up at this trailor and we go to the courthouse, and the sheriff says we can get into the courtroom. And we had a number of spectators, a lot of blacks who were supportive, so to speak. And he says, “Okay, the niggers out.” And the blacks have to get out. And then, “The nigger defendants on the other side of the room.” It was a segregated courtroom. So when the judge takes his position on the bench, I say, “Your Honor, I want to make a protest. The sheriff has ordered the black members of the public out of the courtroom and has directed [I think we called them Negroes then, not blacks] the Negro defendants on the other side of the room. And I protest. This cannot be allowed.” So the judge says, “Okay, tell them not to do it.” I said, “Your Honor, I can't tell the sheriff what to do or what not to do. You have to tell the sheriff what to do.” So he said, “Let ‘em back in.” And they allowed them back in. I felt really terrific about that.

This is what they call a court not of record. They made no transcripts of what took place here. We don't have that anymore. It would be like a justice of the peace. We don't have that here, but they had it there. What was interesting was that they





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