Right of Negro Children in Carthage, Miss. to Attend Integrated Schools

Press Release
December 27, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Right of Negro Children in Carthage, Miss. to Attend Integrated Schools, 1965. 9c7b7695-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/6915d2f3-6bb5-4e99-9e9d-5cc70c388398/right-of-negro-children-in-carthage-miss-to-attend-integrated-schools. Accessed November 23, 2025.

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    JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
De Alas Knight Chalmers 

Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg a 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & ED, FUND, INC. 

5384 NORTH FARISH STREET, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 

December 27, 1965 

Mrs. Betsy Talbot Blackwell 
Editor in Chief 
MADEMOISELLE MAGAZINE 

420 Lexington Avenue 
New York, New York 

After extended litigation, the Legal Defense Fund was able to win 

the right for children from nine Negro families in Carthage, 

Mississippi to attend integrated schools, last September, for 

the first time. A campaign of intimidations, threats and economic 

reprisals was immediately launched with intensity that caused 

eight of the families involved to withdraw their children. As a 

result, 6-year old Debora Lewis was the only child to be enrolled 

in a Leake County white school. Her father, Mr. A, D. Lewis, was 
ce. 

fired from his lumber company job the day after she entered 

school and the family was ordered to move. We have tied that action 

up in court. Mr. Lewis has not been able to secure employment in 

Leake County. The Legal Defense Fund pledged legal and economic 

assistance to the Lewis family at that time. On Friday evening, 

December 24, Christmas Eve, Mr. Lewis was struck from behind 

while Christmas shopping, and mercilessly beaten. The police 

arrived, but stood by. Mr. Lewis was subsequently taken to police 

headquarters in a state of semiconsciousness, where he was arrested 

for assault and battery. His trial comes up tomorrow, December 28 

in Municipal Court in Carthage, Miss. Our other attorneys are 
tied up in representing the Natchez demonstrators, and I must take 
depositions today and prepare our defense. It is with great 
disappointment that I will be unable to participate in your annual 
award ceremony today. I had looked forward to this honor in 
behalf of the young women who have contributed so much to the 
Mississippi Freedom Movement. Many of these young women are 
readers of MADEMOISELLE and I was particularly anxious to spend 
time with their representatives, My sincere wishes for a i 
prosperous and effective New Year. 

MARIAN WRIGHT, ASSISTANT COUNSE 
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL FUND 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss

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Right of Negro Children in Carthage, Miss. to Attend Integrated Schools

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