We must Defend them -- Thurgood Marshall

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at .

This item is featured in:

Black student raises hand in integrated classroom.

Student Activists Lead in the Fight for Civil Rights

Collection
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- 031fbca5-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

Press Releases, Loose Pages. We must Defend them -- Thurgood Marshall, 1960. 031fbca5-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/401921e2-89d1-4b26-821b-dd243ae07437/we-must-defend-them-thurgood-marshall. Accessed December 04, 2025.

Copied!

    PRESS RELEASE® @ 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS op THURGOOD MARSHALL 
Prosident Director-Counsel 

WE MUST DEFEND THEM -- THURGOOD MARSHALL 

March 21, 1960 

NEW YORK -- The manner in which the students are being arrested 

and accused of violating city and state laws in these protest demon- 

strations is wrong and unconstitutional, Thurgood Marshall said 

today following a special three-day conference held at Howard 

University over the weekend. Sixty-two Negro and white civil rights 

lawyers from all southern and border states participated. 

"Every single lawyer who attended the conference unanimously 

agreed that we are obliged to defend those arrested in these demon- 

strations who call upon us for help," explained Mr. Marshall, who 

is director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 

"The conference was entirely successful," he said. "It gave the 

lawyers an opportunity to review every kind of innident where these 

young people are involved and to study the legality of the circum- 

stances surrounding the incidents and arrests." 

The protest demonstrations began February lst with a "sit-in" 

demonstration against the lunch counter discrimination policy of the 

F, W. Woolworth store in Greensboro, N. C. Since then the protest 

has included restaurants, soda fountains, cafeterias, public librar- 

ies and other public facilities. The demonstrations have spread to 

some degree to all southern states except Mississippi. 

More than a thousand students have been arrested, charged and 

tried for violating all sorts of city and state laws and ordinances, 

Mr. Marshall declared Sunday at the close of the 3-day conference 

held at Howard. The conference began Friday night and ended at noon 

on Sunday. 

"Some of these students have been accused of trespassing, assauli 

parading without a license and violating fire regulations by blocking 

aisles in stores," Marshall stated. "Why, some of them have even 

been charged with conspiracy to obstruct commerce." 



” PRESS RELEASE® * 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE « NEW YORK19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS op THURGOOD MARSHALL 
Director-Counsel President 

Marshall said all of these and similar laws are being used to 

enforce racial discrimination. "The use of public force, whether it 

be in the form of arrest by police officers or by convictions by the 

courts, is, of course, in truth state enforcement of private discrim- 

ination and violates the 14th Amendment," Marshall said. "All the 

lawyers are convinced that the only crime the young people committed 

was to exercise their right to freedom of speech and freedom of 

assembly aS guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution," he declared. 

Since the protest demonstrations began 7 weeks ago, thousands 

of students throughout the country have participated in demonstra- 

tions. Mr. Marshall stated, "The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is now 

involved in far more cases at this time than at any other period in 

its twenty year history, as its attorneys are continuously on the 

move, from state to state, and on the long distance telephone, day 

and night." 

=305=

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

We must Defend them -- Thurgood Marshall

This item is featured in:

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in