Complaint Against King Ferry Migrant Labor Camp Charging Interference with Freedom of Press, Speech, Assembly Petition and Association (Telegram)

Press Release
September 3, 1968

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Complaint Against King Ferry Migrant Labor Camp Charging Interference with Freedom of Press, Speech, Assembly Petition and Association (Telegram) preview

Cite this item

  • Press Releases, Volume 5. Complaint Against King Ferry Migrant Labor Camp Charging Interference with Freedom of Press, Speech, Assembly Petition and Association (Telegram), 1968. 64ade3ea-b892-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/2849cdd6-8d51-48bb-be32-0712e3aac7cc/complaint-against-king-ferry-migrant-labor-camp-charging-interference-with-freedom-of-press-speech-assembly-petition-and-association-telegram. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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    WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM 

PD NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND 
10 Columbus Circle, Nyc 10019 

Attorney of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 
Inc. (LDF) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Utica 
New York, today (Tuesday (9/3) in behalf of a newspaper re- 
porter and residents of King Ferry Migrant Labor Camp, charging 
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 Gamp 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 and thus 
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 hife 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 injunctions 
to halt the practice of prohibiting entry into the camp site and 
to prevent "any retaliatory actions against plaintiffs Douglas 
and Shaw such as discharging the migrant-worker-plaintiffs from 
their jobs with the defendant Cayuga Producers Cooperative, Inc. 
or imposing any other punishment because they have brought this 
suit." For further information, please contact Attorney 
Vilma S. Martinez telephone number 856-8397 ext. 715. 

Jesse Devore 
Director of Public Information 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund, Inc. 
10 Columbus Circle 
New York, New York 10019 

APUPI Rhhuw NY 

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