NAACP Legal Defense Fund Scores Four Decisive Wins

Press Release
November 13, 1963

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  • Press Releases, Loose Pages. NAACP Legal Defense Fund Scores Four Decisive Wins, 1963. c7783d61-bd92-ee11-be37-6045bddb811f. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/4a8d128c-0b01-4657-8baf-94698bb92be6/naacp-legal-defense-fund-scores-four-decisive-wins. Accessed July 11, 2025.

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TQ COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEWYORK19,N.Y. ¢ JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG 
President 

CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
ae es Associate Counsel 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND 
SCCRES FOUR DECISIVE WINS 

November 13, 1963 

NEW YORK--Four major courtroom victories were won by NAACP Legal De- 

fense attorneys in six brief days across the country last week. 

Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, 

stressed release of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee field 

workers, jailed in Americus, Ga. since August 8, 

"If Americus officials are permanently enjoined, civil rights 

attorneys will have a new technique of reigning in the city, county 

and state officials who use the law as a means of making life diffi- 

cult for civil rights demonstrators," Mr. Greenberg said, 

Legal Defense Fund lawyers secured the Americus victory on Nov- 

ember 1, 

Meanwhile, in Richmond, Va., the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of 

Appeals struck down racial discrimination against Negro doctors and 

patients in 11 deep south states. 

Some 2,000 jim crow medical facilities are affected in these 

states which have received more than 500 million federal dollars. 

This victory also came on November 1. 

Thirdly, admission of Harold Franklin to the graduate school of 

Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, The University argued that Mr. 

Franklin had not graduated from an accredited college. 

However, Legal Defense Fund attorneys pointed out that no Negro 

college in the state was accredited, and that the Negro students had 

not been allowed to attend the white colleges which are accredited. 

November 5 was the date of this win. 

The fourth victory took place in Arlington, Virginia on October 

31 where attorneys are mopping up the remains of that state's massive 

resistance program, In this case, Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeei 

affirmed the right of Negro children to attend a completely integratec 

school system in that county. 

(more) 
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ee 
NAACP Scores Four Decisive Wins 

In another development, Legal Defense Fund attorneys asked the 

Florida Supreme Court to release four teenage youths, jailed in St, 

Augustine since July 23rd. 

This is their punishment for participating in a sit-in demon- 

stration against lily white restuarants, 

The attorneys are challenging the constitutionality of holding 

juveniles in jail without bail, Three of the youths are 16, the 

fourth is 14 years old, The hearing is slated for November 18th. 

These are but a few of the 8,000 persons currently being de- 

fended by the Defense Fund in 130 separate actions, Mr. Greenberg 

said, 

The 12 New York based attorneys of the Fund, plus the 100 coop- 

erating lawyers throughout the south, defend members of all the major 

civil rights groups. 

The Americus case, which is not finished, represented one. of the 

most massive legal pushes in civil rights history. Eleven Legal De- 

fense Fund lawyers worked a total of 81 man days, at long hours, dur- 

ing this drive. 

The case was being argued in three different courts ai the time 

the youths were finally freed, These courts included a U.S. District 

Court, the Supreme Court of Ga., and the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Cooperating Attorney C.B. King of Albany, Ga. and Legal Defense 

Fund staff Attorney Michael Meltsner of New York City, worked one 

solid month each, 

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