Trenton and Mercer County White Realtors Charged with Conspiracy

Press Release
June 22, 1965

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Trenton and Mercer County, N.J. Realtors Named in LDF Suit

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- Press Releases
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- LDF
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- 38fb8b04-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 2. Trenton and Mercer County White Realtors Charged with Conspiracy, 1965. 38fb8b04-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/46745902-a8a3-4883-aa20-f1585c9068ab/trenton-and-mercer-county-white-realtors-charged-with-conspiracy. Accessed May 12, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Circle 

New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

“Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE FOR RELEASE Tuesday 

June 22, 1965 
President 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers 

Director-Counsel 
Jack Greenberg 

‘ : < TRENTON AND MERCER COUNTY WHITE 
BS ie an REALTORS CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY 
é fs 
» F; Legal Defense Fund Files in Federal Court (*) 

LS 

TRENTON, N.J.---An unusual lawsuit using anti-trust laws to attack 

residential segregation in Northern communities was filed in Federal 

District Court here today by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. aes ? 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys asked the court to stop the 

alleged "unlawful combination and conspiracy in restraint of 

interstate trade and commerce” by which the Trenton and Mercer 

County Board of Realtors has over the years denied membership to 

Negroes and maintained all-white neighborhoods. 

The new strategy was first attempted in a suit filed by se © 

Legal Defense Fund April 7, That suit against the Akrons Ohio ‘ 

realty board is pending in court. 

The Legal Defense Fund complaint, brought on behalf of Mrs. 

Carolyn D. Martin a Princeton Negro real estate broker who charged 

the Board with delineating white areas and refusing to rent or sell 

to Negroes there; with not allowing Negro agents to show listed 

dwellings in those areas; and with campaigning for increased member=) 

ship at the same time Negro applicants were being turned down. 

The attorneys pointed out that in addition to rejecting the 

Negroes, the Board publicized their rejections as based on failure 

to qualify, and held their applications for over a year without 

acting upon them at all. 

Although Mrs. Martin met all stated requirements for membership 

- the Board, she has been turned down six times since 1954. 

Legal Defense Fund lawyers noted that the exclusion of Negroes 

om the Board deprived them of: 

*Acgegs, to the multiple listing system, by which realtors 

enjoy a large market in all neighborhoods; 

(more) 

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



u & That 
a 

Trenton & Mercer County White  -2- June 22, 1965 
Realtors Charged With Conspiracy 

é on && waged bs 
5 *protect: n bymthe Code of Ethics of the National Association 

of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) which requires cooperation =>. 
ad ees | 

among brokers; ey eet 

*use of the "Realtor" trademark, regarded by the public as more 

reliable than "Broker"; $ 

*receipt of NAREB publications--including indispensable , 

bulletins, journals, and analyses devoted to problems and 

trends in the real estate business; 

*use of the extensive consulting and library facilities of 

the NAREB, the New Jersey and Trenton boards, 

According to Legal Defense Fund spokesmen, favorable court 

judgement of the application of anti-trust laws to real estate 

combinations would bring a breakthrough in the fight to end a 

residential segregation North and South, 

The civil rights attorneys argue that the laws apply, since 

persons moving to and from Mercer County travel in interstate 

commerce, as do a large part of the building supplies and materia 

used, the mortgages which finance housing, and the insurance whic! 

covers it. 

In addition to the anti-trust conspiracy claim, the Legal 

Defense Fund complaint charges that the discrimination practiced” 

the Board violates both New Jersey common law, which prohibits 

combinations in restraint of trade, and the 14th Amendment to thé 

U.S. Constitution. 

‘The 14th Amendment forbids discrimination on the basis of race 

by public bodies. According to the Legal Defense Fund lawyers, the 

Board of Realtors performs official state functions and is thus q 

subject to the 14th Amendment guarantees. : 

Furthermore, the Legal Defense Fund suit charges, a New Jers Y 

state court case which led to the admission of a doctor to a medi 

association with some state functions established a prededent Bod 
P eae 

which covers the real estate Board as well. . il 

ome: eae rests. (more) 

wi 



Trenton and Mercer County White -3- June 22, 1965 
Be) Charged. wiih Conspiracy = 

ne igsh a |COER 
vIn addition to qaeking an injunction ending the policy of 

adfying Beard membership to Negroes, the Legal Defense Fund suit 

asks the court to order the plaintiff accepted as a membaae 

on. n payne of the requisite fee, to consider Negro applicants wi 

“and to adjudge and decree that the Board has conspired to 

a. in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. 

a Legs Defense Fund Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg and staff 

Ty Bove M,. Nabrit,III, Leroy D, Clark, and Sheila Rush were 

joined inthe action by Melvin Gittleman, North Bergen, New Jersey 

a of New York, and Jay T 

-30- 

iE
 

eS 

* EDITOR'S NOTE: "The "NAACP Legal Defense Fund" is not the NAACP. 
The two were separated in 1939 and now function 

cd in close cooperation as two separate entities.

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Trenton and Mercer County White Realtors Charged with Conspiracy

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