Correspondence from Stevas to McDonald

    “PRESS RELEASE® @ 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
1TOCOLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK19,N.Y. © 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG 
President 

JUdson 6-8 

Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

DECISION IN CLEMSON CASE 
EXPECTED BEFORE JANUARY 1ST 

December 7, 1962 

NEW YORK -- A ruling for or against Harvey Gantt, the 19 year-old 

Negro student who has sued to enter all-white Clemson College in 

South Carolina, is expected before January lst, Mrs. Constance 

Baker Motley said today. 

Mrs. Motley said District Judge C. C,. Wyche of Anderson, 

S. C, has promised to rule before the first of the year, which 

means that Gantt may have a chance to enter Clemson for the second 

semester beginning in February. 

If Gantt wins his case, he will become the James Meredith of 

South Carolina. South Carolina, like Mississippi, has not desegre 

gated any of its publicly supported schools. 

Mrs. Motley and South Carolina NAACP attorneys sought to 

prove in the trial last month that Gantt's application was handled 

differently from those of white students, and that Clemson was 

following a "white only" policy when it turned down Gantt. 

Clemson attorneys retorted that Gantt was not admitted 

because he failed to complete his application form in a proper 

397 

CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 

Ss 

manner. Clemson also argued that it does not maintain a lily-white 

admissions policy, though it admittedly has never had a Negro 

student. 

Gantt, who lives in Charleston, had attempted to transfer to 

Clemson in early 1961 from Iowa State University, where he was 

then a freshman. He was attending Iowa State on a South Carolina 

out-of-state grant. Such financial assistance is given Negro stu- 

dents who wish to pursue a course of study not offered in the 

state Negro college. Gantt is an excellent student, an architec- 

ture major who had finished second in his class at Burke High 

School in Charleston in 1960. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys, under the direction of 

Mrs. Motley, filed suit on Gantt's behalf July 2, 1962. By this 



20 

time, he had written more than ten letters to the Registrar 

inquiring about his application. 

In the Fund brief submitted last week, South Carolina NAACP 

attorney Matthew Perry contends that Clemson College is pursuing, 

in denying Gantt admission, a long-standing custom, supported by 

state law, of refusing admission to Negro students. 

The brief also maintains that (1) South Carolina's policy of 

racial segregation is reflected in numerous legislative sanctions, 

and that (2) Gantt has the legal right to seek an injunction inthis 

case not only for himself, but for subsequent Negro applicants who 

are qualified for admission. 

Gantt has withdrawn from Iowa State and is now at home await- 

ing Judge Wyche's decision, and any subsequent legal moves should 

that decision be unfavorable. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys for Gantt besides 

Mrs. Motley and Mr, Perry are Lincoln C, Jenkins, Jr., of Golumbia, 

Donald J. Sampson and Willie T. Smith, Jr. of Greenville, and 

Jack Greenberg of New York City.