New York.-- Thurgood Marshall today served notice that there will be no letup…

    NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
Room 1790 - 10 Columbus Circle - New York 19, N.Y. 

JUdson 6-8397 
THURGOOD MARSHALL 
Director-Counsel 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 3, 1958 

NEW YORK.--Thurgood Marshall today served notice that there will 

be no letup or compromise in the legal struggle for equal justice for 

full citizenship rights for all Negro Americans during 1958. 

"Although our limited resources will most surely and sorely be 

strained," Mr. Marshall declared, "the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa- 

tional Fund does not intend to default in its charter obligation to 

supply legal aid and assistance to any and all worthy Negro citizens 

who are segregated or discriminated against because of their race or 

color, and who call on us to take action on their behalf," 

Mr. Marshall, who is Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, and who has personally argued 1h. cases before the 

U. S. Supreme Court during the past 17 years in behalf of Negroes whose 

constitutional rights were violated, made this statement in summarizing 

the work of the Legal Defense Fund in 1957 and outlining the objectives 

for 1958. He was chief attorney for the Negroes in the School Segrega- 

tion Cases which resulted in the May 17, 195) Supreme Court decision 

outlawing segregation in public education and other segregation cases. 

Despite numerous threats and intimidation against Negroes, the 

large sums of money appropriated by southern legislatures for special 

attorneys to find ways and means of denying Negroes their constitu- 

tional rights and the trumped up measures to curb the activities of the 

Legal Defense Fund's services, there was no letup in the volume of 

civil rights litigation in 1957, Mr. Marshall said. 

He noted that Legal Defense Fund attorneys participeted in more 

than 100 court proceedings during the past year. A large majority were 

actions aimed at implementing court decisions which outlawed segrega- 

tion in public education, public recreation and public transportation. 

The remainder of the proceedings involved racial segregation or discrim 

ination in public housing, teacher security and criminal prosecutions. 



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Resistance in 1957 to court decisions, Mr. Marshall pointed out, 

included an ' ‘endless rash of laws," regulations, investigations and a 

series of reprisal measures which further sought to deny Negroes 

their basic constitutional rights and also halt the legal activities 

of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Such measures are designed to indi- 

rectly inhibit integration, Mr. Marshall declared. 

"There is every indication that these measures will increase 

rather than subside," the civil rights attorney predicted, "and we 

must be prepared to meet them." 

Mr. Marshall pointed out that only seven of the cases in which 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys participated during the year resulted in 

adverse decisions. Appeals are now pending in five of them. 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a non-profit orgai 

organization incorporated in 190 to render legal aid to Negroes suf- 

fering injustices because of race and color and who cannot afford to 

engage the services of qualified legal counsel. 

Until recent years the Fund's activities were exclusively direc- 

ted toward securing for Negro citizens rights long denied, although 

specifically guaranteed them under the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and 

Fifteenth Amendments to the Federal Constitution. However, the Fund 

has had to become involved in First Amendment cases because much of 

the recent legislation in the South restricts freedom of speech and 

association, 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund recently moved its 

offices to the New York Coliseum building following a series of bur- 

glaries and rifling of the files. It is now located at 10 Columbus 

Cirele, Room 1790, New York 19, N. Y. 

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