LDF Suit Asks Freedom of Press

Press Release
September 7, 1968

LDF Suit Asks Freedom of Press preview

LDF Files Complaint Against King Ferry Migrant Labor Camp, Asking Freedom of Press.

Cite this item

  • Press Releases, Volume 5. LDF Suit Asks Freedom of Press, 1968. 76ade3ea-b892-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/0a58091e-a6de-46d7-89dc-ade489d4667f/ldf-suit-asks-freedom-of-press. Accessed June 17, 2025.

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    4X rai 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Hopper 
Jack Greenberg egal ‘efense und Director, Public R 
Jesse DeVore, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. reVare, 

10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NIGHT NUMBER 21: 49-8487 

FOR RELEASE 
SATURDAY 
September 7, 1968 

LDF SUIT ASKS 
FREEDOM OF 
PRESS 

Migrant Farm Workers & Reporter Seek Dialogue 

UTICA, N.Y.---The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) 
filed a complaint in U.S. District Court here this week in behalf of 
a newspaper reporter and residents of King Ferry Migrant Labor Camp. 

It charged interference with freedom of the press, freedom of 
speech, assembly, petition and association. 

This complaint names as defendants the district attorney of 
Cayuga County, two officers of the New York State Police, as well as 
the cooperative manager and the cooperative which owns the camp 
where the migrants reside. 

The plaintiffs--Walter Rewald, a reporter with the CITIZEN- 
ADVERTISER, and Howard Douglas and Floyd shaw, migrant farm workers-- 
desire that Mr, Rewald "and other newsmen and other members of the 
public have free access to visit them at the King Ferry Migrant Labor 
Camp in order that the press can publish accounts of activities and 
living conditions at the camp." 

This will “assist them in improving their conditions and in 
petitioning public officials with jurisdiction and responsibility over 
the camp about their grievances." 

Reporter Rewald visited the camp and wrote stories of life there 
which in time displeased officials of the camp who subsequently 
barred his entry. 

Rewald wants to go back and continue his job as a reporter. 

LDF attorneys are asking for preliminary and permanent injunc- 
tions to halt the practice of prohibiting entry into the camp sice 
and to prevent “any retaliatory actions against plaintiffs Douglas 
and Shaw such as discharging the migrant-worker-plaintiffs or 
imposing any other punishment because they have brought this suit." 

-30- 

NOTE: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is a 
separate and distinct organization from the NAACP. Its correct 
designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which 
is shortened to LDF.

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