Racial segregation of state parks and beaches in South Carolina was legally challenged by NAACP Legal Defense Fund…

Press Release
July 10, 1961

Racial segregation of state parks and beaches in South Carolina was legally challenged by NAACP Legal Defense Fund… preview

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  • Press Releases, Loose Pages. Racial segregation of state parks and beaches in South Carolina was legally challenged by NAACP Legal Defense Fund…, 1961. 4e6cfdcf-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/59417ca6-74b6-4a02-9d85-cc35fe1441dd/racial-segregation-of-state-parks-and-beaches-in-south-carolina-was-legally-challenged-by-naacp-legal-defense-fund. Accessed April 19, 2025.

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    PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TO COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS os THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

July 10, 1961 

NEW YORK - Racial segregation of state parks and beaches in 

South Carolina was legally challenged by NAACP Legal Defense Fund 

attorneys last week. 

A federal district court suit, filed in Charleston, S. C., 

July 7, asks the court to rule segregation of all twenty-three parks 

and beaches in South Carolina unconstitutional under the equal protec- 

tion and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The suit was filed on behalf of Negro plaintiffs who attempted 

to use Myrtle Beach near Columbia, S. C. on August 30, 1960, and 

Sesqui Centennial Park, also near Columbia, on June 15, 1961. 

South Carolina maintains eighteen state parks for whites only, 

and five parks for Negroes only, all regulated by the State Commission 

of Forestry under state law. 

The Negro plaintiffs are J. Arthur Brown, N. P. Sharper, J. 

Herbert Nelson, Harold White, Edith Davis, Mary Nesbitt, Hills Norris, 

Jr., Jerrivoch C, Jefferson, Murry Canty, Sam Leverette, and Gladys 

Porter. 

Named as defendants are the South Carolina State Forestry Com= 

mission; its members; Charles R. Flory, State Forester, and C. West 

Jacocks, State Park Director. 

NAACP Legal Defense attorneys for the plaintiffs are Matthew J. 

Perry of Spartanburg, S. C., and Thurgood Marshall and Jack Greenberg 

of New York City. 

=30n=

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