Wealthy Negroes Pledge One Million Dollars to Rights Lawyers

    Cte 
pene 

President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director Counsel 
egal efense und Deck Crocateae 

Director, Public Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. TeeaDeVoreae 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 68397 FOR RELEASE ioHtT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

MONDAY 
MARCH 20, 1967 

WEALTHY NEGROES PLEDGE 
ONE MILLION DOLLARS 
TO'RIGHTS LAYIYERS 

Spaulding and Julian Head National Committee 

First Of Its Kind In History 

NEW Pe eoi es Len ebedeae history was made here this week when 49 of 
the nation's leading Negro business and professional men and women 
pledged to raise $1,000,000,00 for civil rights litigation by next 
April. 

It selected the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
(LDF) as recipient because the LDF serves as the legal arm for the 
entire civil rights movement. 

The new organization is called the National Negro Business and 
Professional Committee in Support of the Legal Defense Fund, 

Asa T, Spaulding, president of North Carolina Mutual Life 
Insurance Company, Durham, N.C. and Dr, Percy L, Julian, president, 
Julian Laboratories, Oak Park, Illinois, who called the unprecedented 
meeting, were named co-chairmen, 

Mr. Spaulding said that the nationally noted business and pro- 
fessional leaders came to New York across the entire country on five 
days notice, conferred four hours, and pledged the $1,000,000.00 
during the next 12 months. 

Each of the conferees--insurance company officers, real estate 
executives, businessmen, doctors, and lawyers--then signed a personal 
pledge of $1,000.00 each. 

Gustav Heningburg, assistant to the president of the LDF, who 
worked closely with Messrs. Spaulding and Julian, said that "this 
marks the first time in American history that Negroes have banded 
together under Negro leadership and pledged to support a Negro cause 
at this level of giving." 

The plan, as announced by Mr. Spaulding, calls for 1000 persons 
to give or raise $1,000.00 each. 

"This new effort also brings all strata of the national Negro 
community into the fight for first-class citizenship in varied but 
meaningful ways," Mr. Heningburg added, 

Dr. John W, Davis, former president of West Virginia State College 
and now a top LDF executive, said that this drive would have far 
ranging implications for educational philanthropy. 

"College training is very important to the middle class Negro 
family, and higher education in America depends very heavily on 
philanthropic giving. 

“Negroes, as a group, have not given to higher education and, in 
turn, higher education has not done all it ‘*ould for Negroes. 

"The visible emergence of Negro giving on this level can rapidly 
change that picture," Dr, Davis said. 

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WEALTHY NEGROES PLEDGE 
ONE MILLION DOLLARS 
TO RIGHTS LAWYERS -2- March 20, 1967 

Mr, Heningburg also suggested that “once Negro leadership gets in 
the habit of flexing its economic muscle, local and national political 
campaigns affecting the Negro community can be altered. 

"Negro political candidates by and large are forced to run on 
meager campaign budgets because Negroes have not, before now, supported 
Negroes with this kind of "green powex,'" Heningburg concluded. 

The LDF, through its 25 New York based lawyers and 250 coopera- 
ting attorneys across the South, handles over 90 percent of the civil 
rights litigation in the country. 

Under the leadership of Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, LDF 
attorneys now handle 400 separate cases and represent more than 13,000 
individuals arrested for peaceful protest demonstrations. 

The LDF represents Rev. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian 
Leadership Conference; the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; 
the Congress of Racial Equality; and branches of the National Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Colored People. 

In addition, LDF attorneys represent numerous cther private 
citizens with bona fide civil rights claims. 

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Murray J. Marvin, Director of Corporate Planning 
Public Relations for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
is sending on March 20 a mat of Mr, Spaulding for your use.]