Ex Parte Virginia was the third of three cases involving African American jury service that the Supreme Court decided on March 1, 1880. James D. Coles, a Pittsylvania County judge, was indicted on February 27, 1879, for refusing to allow African Americans to serve on juries. The federal grand juries that met in Danville and Lynchburg in February and March 1879 indicted judges from the following fourteen counties for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1875 by barring African Americans from jury service: Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Botetourt, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Franklin, Fluvanna, Henry, Nelson, Patrick (the court involved in Virginia v. Rives), Pittsylvania, and Roanoke. The federal District Court judge Alexander Rives had the judges arrested so that they could stand trial.