LDF Seeks End to Harassment of GA. Civil Rights Workers

Press Release
September 15, 1965

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- Press Releases
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- 94121341-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 3. LDF Seeks End to Harassment of GA. Civil Rights Workers, 1965. 94121341-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/58e740da-365c-4b5c-bc64-6f876477c8dd/ldf-seeks-end-to-harassment-of-ga-civil-rights-workers. Accessed July 01, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Cirele 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers FOR RELEASE 
Director-Counsel Wednesday Jack Greenberg September 15, 1965 

LDF SEEKS END TO HARASSMENT 
OF GA, CIVIL RIGHTS WORKERS 

Asks Three-Judge Court to Review Laws, Enjoin Officials 

CRAWFORDVILLE, Ga.--NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund 

attorneys today charged that Crawfordville officials have con- 

spired to harass and intimidate civil rights activists. 

The lawyers asked Acting Chief Judge John R. Brown to 

convene a three-judge federal court to consider their three- 

part complaint. 

The complaint seeks to overturn two Georgia laws which 

attorneys contend have been used by Crawfordville officials in 

their alleged conspiracy to harass civil rights workers and 

local Negroes. 

It also asks the tribunal to enjoin the Taliaferro County 

School Board from sending white pupils to schools outside the 

county to avoid school desegregation. 

The suit stems from the arrests last month of several per- 

sons who had been active in the civil rights movement in 

Crawfordville and Taliaferro County. 

One of those arrested, Calvin Turner, whose- contract to 

teach in Crawfordville's Negro school was not renewed for the 

present school year, is still in jail for lack of bail totaling 

$17,750. 

A hearing on a Legal Defense Fund motion for reduction of 

bail is scheduled for Nov. 3 before Federal District Court Judge 

Frank Scarlett in Brunswick, but attorneys anticipate action by 

the Fifth Circuit's three-judge panel before that date. 

(more) 

re, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 



LDF Seeks End to Harassment ~-2- September 15, 1965 
of Ga. Civil Rights Workers 

Mr, Turner and 10 others are under indictment for alleged 

violation of a Georgia law against interfering with religious 

worship. 

They were charged on information supplied by a white man 

who was identified as a retired minister. He complained to 

police after the 11 participated in a Sunday afternoon freedom 

demonstration on the lawn of the Crawfordville courthouse where 

he was also addressing a group of persons. 

Mr. Turner is also named in three four-count indictments 

under a Georgia forgery law. The indictments charge him with 

having forged the names of Negroes to applications for transfer 

to white schools. Mr. Turner's signature appears on the appli- 

cations as a notary public. 

The Legal Defense Fund complaint charges that officials 

used trickery and intimidation to get Negroes to sign complaints 

against Mr. Turner. 

The civil rights attorneys asked for a three-judge panel 

to enjoin officials from prosecuting persons under the forgery 

and interfering with worship laws. 

They also seek to have the laws, which they contend have 

been used to harass civil rights workers and those seeking to 

exercise their rights, declared unconstitutional on grounds 

that they are vague and over-broad. 

The suit further asks that the Taliaferro County School 

Board be enjoined from transferring white students to schools 

outside the county to avoid desegregation. 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys in the case are Jack Greenberg, 

Fund director-counsel, and James M. Nabrit, III of New York, 

and Howard Moore, Jr. and Donald L. Hollowell of Atlanta. 

=s06

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LDF Seeks End to Harassment of GA. Civil Rights Workers

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