LDF Charges Racial Discrimination in Bessemer, Alabama, Jury Selection

Press Release
February 13, 1966

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Press Releases, Volume 3. LDF Charges Racial Discrimination in Bessemer, Alabama, Jury Selection, 1966. edb830c6-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/31d21445-196f-4a7c-9892-b39f9099e696/ldf-charges-racial-discrimination-in-bessemer-alabama-jury-selection. Accessed January 07, 2026.

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    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational F. ‘und 
PRESS RELEASE 

Hani Rrancteie Wives 

pejnes crecuiere 

FCR RELEASE 
Friday, 
February 13, 1966 

LDF CHARGES RACIAL DISCRIMINATION 
IN BESSEMER, ALA., JURY SELECTION 

BIRMINGHAM, ALA,---Attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund today asked the Federal District Court hereto 

end racial discrimination in selection of Bessemer, Ala., juries. 

A complaint, filed in behalf of four Bessemer Negroes, alleges 

that although Negroes comprise about 52 per cent of the population, 

the names of only a token number of Nearoes have been included on 

the jury lists. 

Named as defendants in the suit are the president, vice-pres- 

ident, associate member and clerk of the Jury Commission, and the 

clerk of the lOth Judicial Circuit of Alabama, Bessemer Division. 

The defendants are charged with systematically using 

procedures and methods that result in either no Negroes being 

selected from the jury lists for grand and petit jury panels, or 

limiting the selection of Negroes to so small a number that they can 

easily be struck when selecting juries for trials. 

The suit asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions to 

prevent the defendants from utilizing present jury lists or jurors 

selected from present lists. 

t asks that the commission be ordered to compile new jury 

lists that will fairly reflect the percentage of Negro citizens. 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys in the case are Demetrius Newton 

of Birmingham, Fund Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg and Norman C. 

Amaker, both of New York. 

=30- 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public ion—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss

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LDF Charges Racial Discrimination in Bessemer, Alabama, Jury Selection

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