African-American students from Southern University sat at a "whites only" segregated lunch bar at Sitman's Drugstore in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The manager called the Police after the students quietly remained even though they were asked to move to another counter. After ordering the black patrons to leave, the Police arrested them and charged them with disturbing the peace. The claim was that their behavior could "foreseeably disturb or alarm the public," according to the state's "disturbing the peace" statute.