Memorandum on Goldberg and Wilkins Commission for the Black Panther Party; Goldberg and Wilkins Remarks - Statement on Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and Law Enforcement Officials; Background on Norman C. Amaker

    NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
egal efense fund 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 + 586-8397 

December 15, 1969 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: NEGRO PRESS 

FROM: Jesse DeVore, Director of Public Information 

Former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and NAACP 
Executive Director Roy Wilkins announced formation of a 
national commission to conduct an inquiry into recent incidents 
in a number of cities involving law enforcement officials and 
members of the Black Panther Party. 

The press conference was held on Monday, December 15, 
at the offices of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund, Inc. (LDF) in New York City. 

LDF Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg introduced 
Mssrs. Goldberg and Wilkins and then presented First 
Assistant Counsel Norman C. Amaker who will act as staff 
director for the newly formed Commission. 

Enclosed is the statement by Mssrs. Wilkins and Goldberg 
plus biographical information on Mr. Amaker. 

Contributions are deductible for U. S. income tax purposes 



eel 

Wilkins 
York City 

Remarks by Arthur J. Goldbe 
10 Columbus Circle, Suite 2030, 

December 15, 1969, 11:00 a.m. 

STATEMENT ON COMMISSION OF INQUIRY INTO THE BLACK PANTHERS AND 

LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS 

We, the undersigned, are concerned about increasing violence 

in American life. We believe that government under the scrutiny 

of an alert citizenry must assure civil peace and that private or 

paramilitary violence and police excesses should have no role in 

the process of achieving ordered liberty under law. It is in this 

context that we are profoundly disturbed by recent incidents in a 

number of our cities involving the police or other law enforcement 

officials and members of the Black Panther Party. The past weeks' 

events in Los Angeles and Chicago have raised grave questions over 

the whole range of civil rights and civil liberties as applied to 

) 
i 

We have received ahxious queries and representations in such 

the Black Panthers. 

volume from ali parts of\ the country as to leave no doubt that a 

great many Americans share our concern. .There should, moreover, 

be no doubt as to the Bootes of genuine fear and anxiety which 

these developments have nourished in the minority communities. 

The fatal shootings a Chicago on December 4 and the raid 
\ 

in Los Angeles on December 8 underline the sobering assertion by 

Panther spokesmen that, within the past two years, as many as a 

score of Black Panthers have|been killed by law enforcement officers. 

Depending on who is speaking and who is listening, the image the 

Panthers present is mixed, varying from their children's breakfast 

programs to their willingness to use violence--some say in self- 

defense only, others say in other circumstances as well. But there 

is little doubt of their appeal to many black youth. However one 

views the Panthers, this clearly poses the thost serious 

| 
which must be answered and dealt with if Americans of al 1 

are to have continued faith in the democratic proce 



this end, we are announcing the formation of a commis 

of citizens, with supporting organizations, who will immediately 

sibilities: 

1. To direct a searching inquiry, along appropriate lines, 

into the incidents in Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, New York and 

elsewhere in which Black Panthers have become the object of attention 

by law enforcement agenci We seek a balanced inquiry and invite 

Black Panthers as well as police to cooperate with us. 

2. To present an objective report of these findings to the 

general public and to the appropriate local, state and federal 

agencies and officials so that appropriate remedial action can be 

taken with respect to all aspects of the situation. 

3. To call upon the National Commission on the Causes and 

Prevention of Violence to undertake immediately a thorough and 

searching examination of all of the incidents Solas the local 

police forces and the Black Panther Party which have occurred 

across the country in the last few years, with a view toward 

obtaining a full and complete picture of the situation and presenting 

it to the country. 

4. To request that the Civil Rights Division of the Department 

of Justice undertake at once an urgent investigation of all of 

these incidents in order to determine whether prosecutable 

violations of the civil rights of American citizens have occurred 

in any of them; and, if such violations have occurred, that it 

institute criminal prosecutions forthwith. 

The role of government is particularly significant because, 

as Justice Brandeis has said, government is the great teacher for 

good or evil. 



LIST OF CON\ 

INQUIRY INTO THE BLACK 
) LAW ENFORCI nO: : 

Clifford Alexander, former Chairman, Equal Employment Opport 

Commission 

Honorable Julian Bond, Representative, Georgia House of Representatives 

sam Brown, Coordinator, Vietnam Moratorium Committee 

W. Haywood Burns, Executive Director, National Conference of Black 

Lawyers 

Kenneth Clark, President, Metropolitan Applied Research Center 

Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General 

William T. Coleman, JYr., Partner, Dilworth, Paxson, Kohn & Levy 

Honorable John Conyers, Congressman from Michigan 

John Douglas, George Lindsay, Co-Chairmen, Lawyers Committee for Civil 

Rights Under Law 

Honorable Melvyn Dymally, National Conference of Black Elected Officials 

Marian Wright Edelman, Director, Washington Research Project 

Jean Fairfax, President, Black Wor 1's Community Development Foundation 

Arthur J. Goldberg, former Justice of U.S. Supreme Court, former 

Ambassador to the United Nations 

Jack Greenberg, Director-Cotunsel, NAACP Tegal Defense and-Educaticonal 

Fund, Inc. 

Honorable Richard G. Hatcher, Mayor, Gary, Indiana 

Phillip Hoffman, President, American Jewish Committee 

Jesse Jackson, Director, Operation Breadbasket 

Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, President, American Jewish Congress 

John Ded. Pemberton, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union 

Louis Pollak, Dean, Yale University Law School 

Joseph Porter, Western Regional Director, Black American Law Students 

Association 

A. Philip Randolph, Vice-President, AFL-CIO 

Cynthia Wedel, President, National Council of Churches 

George Wiley, Executive Director, National Welfare Rights Organization 

Roy Wilkins, Executive Director, National Association for the 

Advancement of Colored People 

Whitney Young, Jr, Executive Director, Urban League 



Fi t Assi 
NAACP Legal Defense and 

SE 

1 Fund, Inc. (LDF) 

a young attorney with a long record 

of 

-ant Counsel, he now has responsibility for 

the overall supervision of the civil rights program of the LDF. 

He was the d by former LDF Director- 

Counsel Thurgood Ma all, now an associate Justice of the United 

me Court. States Supr 

Mr. Amaker w Ll news -- almost a month ago to 

counsel for the LDF 

battery of attorneys who presented 10 (there were a total of 16 

cases) separate school desegregation cases to the United States 

Court of Appeals in Hous ton. 

He stood before 14 \feaeral judges, the largest panel ever 

assembled for a school matter and said, "the common thread running 

through all the appeals -+ to put it quite simply -- is how? and 

when? \ 

"Phe only answer to the question of 'when?' is --'right now' 

and the only delay acceptable is for the formulation of a plan for 

dismantling the dual school system in the barest minimum time." 

That hearing grew out of LDF's split with the U.S.Department 

of Justice over the rate of integration of Mississippi schools. 

Such advocacy is not new for Mr. Amaker. He rose to his feet 

in a crowded Alabama peeeesdon in June of 1963 to object to the use 

of the first name of a Negro woman by the Southern prosecutor 

cross—examining her. j 

The case of "Mi " Mary Hamilton, who refused to be called 

"MARY," received national attention when it was carried by NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund (LDF) attorneys to the U.S. Supreme Court... The 

correct in rai court ruled that Mr. Amaker was ng his objection to 



fhern cus age old Sou 

He has appeared twice before the U.S 

the right of black hare first argument, invol\ 

ul. The hi irginia, was suc a secret ballot 

no changes may be made in voting procedures without going thro 

the courts or J.S. 

awaiting the decision in Mr. Ama The LDF is 

: : 7 3 a 
in which he has challéfiged Al Supreme Court argun 

lection of jurors on racie bitrary s permitting the a 

Martin Luther Ki He has represented the late Dr. 

of his Southern ip Confere: 

places like Birmingham in 1963 and Selma, Alabama in 1965. 

From 1961 until near the end of 1965 when the civi 

movement began to change some of its emphasis and fo 

could well be said that\he was the Inc. Fund ' syle 

"Movement, " particularly\ in the State of Alab 

ment in this work in the nine years Mr. Amaker's involv 

school dese has included representation of persons in dozer 

tion cases in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Nor 

and New York; in cases attacking hospital discrimination, voting 

discrimination and police brutality. 

Toward the end of 1965, he turned his attention to the di 

of a broad-scale program for bringing civil suits against the per- 

roes in jury selection. petuation of racial discrimination against 1 

In 1966, he became involved in the In 

an end to the southern-based px 2ctice of discriminatorily sentencing 

\ 
Negroes convicted of rape to death, an effort whi 

been totally successful.