Company Here Dismisses Negro - LDF Attorneys Take Court Action

Press Release
October 15, 1968

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Company Here Dismisses Negro - LDF Attorneys Take Court Action preview

LDF Attorney Robert Belton Files Suit Against American Cast Iron Pipe Co. Because of Employment Discrimination in Birmingham, Ala.

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  • Press Releases, Volume 5. Company Here Dismisses Negro - LDF Attorneys Take Court Action, 1968. cfdef709-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/43153dae-fe55-4faa-8a74-87528ba19d0f/company-here-dismisses-negro-ldf-attorneys-take-court-action. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 

egal efense lund — 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 

18-15-Ge | 

FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE 

COMPANY HERE DISMISSES NEGRO 
LDF ATTYS. TAKE COURT ACTION 

BIRMINGHAM, ALA.--NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc, (LDF) 
attorneys today began a civil action against American Cast Iron Pipe Co. 
here because of alleged employment discrimination. 

LDF staff attorney Robert Belton and cooperating attorney Oscer Adams 
of this city began proceedings before the U.S, Court of Appeals for the 
Fifth Circuit on behalf of Peter J. Wrenn, a former employee of the com- 
pany. 

Wrenn, a Negro, charges that the company dismissed him after he filed 
a complaint of employment discrimination with the Equal Employment Opport- 
unity Commission (EEOC). 

American Cast Iron seid it dismissed Wrenn because he made “libelous, 
false and malicious accusations against the company and its officials." 

Compeny officiels mede reference to a letter which Wrenn and 107 
other employees wrote to the President. 

Wrenn and his fellow employees said in the letter that Negroes were 
being replaced by whites with lesser seniority, that manegement had 
adopted en unfair testing policy, and that Negroes with 15 to 20 years 
service were denied promotion and job upgrading. 

The company employs approximately 2700 people; 790 are Negroes. 
These employees, black end white, are not represented by a labor organi- 
zation. 

Negroes voice their grievences through an all Negro Auxiliary Board 
to an all white Board of Operative. 

Only Negroes vote for members of the auxiliary and only whites vote 
for members of their board. 

Prior to Wrenn's dismissal, he was serving his second two-year term 
as chairman of the Auxiliery Board. 

LDF attorney Belton said that Wrenn and other Negro employees have 
sought relief from the racially discriminatory employment practices of 
the company since 1963, 

Belton and Adams asked the Court, in ection taken today, to order the 
American Cast Iron to give Wrenn his job beck. 

-30- 

NOTE: NAACP Legel 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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