#title Mime Troupe Freed
#author Fifth Estate Collective
#SORTauthors Fifth Estate Collective;
#date 1967
#source [[https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/26-march-15-31-1967/mime-troupe-freed]]
#lang en
#pubdate 2025-05-11
#notes Fifth Estate #26, March 15–31, 1967

Early last week the Denver branch of the American Civil Liberties Union won a complete acquittal for the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s Minstrel Show on charges of obscenity and lewd behavior dating from last November [see “Mime Troupe Busted,” [[https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/17-november-1-15-1966/mime-troupe-busted/][FE #17, November 1–15, 1966]]].

Bill Linden, Peter Cohon and Earl Robertson were the three minstrels arrested last year when the show started a cross-country tour with performances in Denver. The group performed the same act in Detroit last September without incident. “It was a victory of free speech for all of Colorado,” said an ACLU attorney: “It showed that the vice squad cannot set the standards for free speech.”