The next morning, a number of students were ready to march on the County Courthouse, and demand that their leaders be returned to them. But just after noon Dean Jones came out to speak with the demonstrators in Wheeler Street. "We have had no specific demands presented us," Jones told the crowd, "We have a right to meet our petitioners face to face over a bargaining table," he said. "There should have been names of all those signing the petition of demands." The students, however, wanted to hear what T.S.U. acting president J. B. Pierce intended to do about the charges he had filed against Kirkpatrick, Alexander, and Johnson. Pierce, when he spoke to the crowd, was non-committal. First, he read a prepared statement, saying the administration wished to "carry on a dialogue with the students." Then asked whether he would drop the charges, Pierce said, "I'm not a lawyer, I don't know the law.... I don't know what's going to happen," and walked off the stage.

At that, the students poured out of the auditorium and began massing to march on the courthouse. Some 200 persons marched around the University of Houston campus to enlist the support of Negro students there, and then headed downtown. One of the marchers shouted up at Lee Otis Johnson, who was heading the four-block long line, "Hey, Lee Otis, from now on, we're callin' you Moses. You're leading the brothers out of the ghetto." Johnson's reign, however, was short. Moments later, as the marchers passed by the riot cars which had been parked during the last week on 24-hour alert at Jeppesen stadium, about eight Negro police officers rushed up to Johnson, grabbed him, and dragged him to a waiting car. Two plainclothes officers waved a submachine gun and a riot gun over the crowd, and then retreated running across Cullen Boulevard.

That night, about 75 of the demonstrators slept on the sidewalk, awaiting word whether the university would try to drop charges against the three prisoners, or whether the hearing would be moved up to the next day. City representatives had reportedly been trying to contact Justice of the Peace Jack Treadway, in whose court the case was scheduled to be heard, but Treadway could not be reached. Neither Treadway, nor the district attorney, Carol S. Vance, were expected to be amenable to any suggestions, whether from the mayor's office, or from the university, that charges be dropped at this point. One onlooker, among the group of well-dressed whites watching the demonstrators, remarked, "If Treadway lets them niggers go, he'll get killed in the next election."

"Mrs. Wallace wouldn't never let 'em get away with this," another bystander said.

An off-duty fireman remarked, "If I had my fire hose, I'd wash all this trash down the street."

The next day, just after noon, Millard Lowe and Dr. Archie L. Buffkins, who had agreed to replace Mack Jones as advisor of SNCC, drove up and told the group that the university had dropped charges, and that they should all clean up the area and return to the campus. Under the impression that the three prisoners would be freed presently, the demonstrators complied. When they reached the campus, however, they learned that President Pierce had released a statement saying "I... have met with the mayor and his staff, and ... have requested that ... their bonds be reduced to an amount that can be raised