Legal Defense Fund in Drive to Educate Southern Negroes to Rights Act Job Section
Press Release
July 10, 1965

Cite this item
-
Press Releases, Volume 2. Legal Defense Fund in Drive to Educate Southern Negroes to Rights Act Job Section, 1965. 5ec4ca16-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/7029292a-826f-44b3-98bd-987294d62829/legal-defense-fund-in-drive-to-educate-southern-negroes-to-rights-act-job-section. Accessed July 30, 2025.
Copied!
10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE OTe Aline Knight Chalmers Director-Counsel ; Jack Greenberg i FOR RELEASE Saturday July 10, 1965 LEGAL DEFENSE FUND IN DRIVE TO EDUCATE SOUTHERN NEGROES TO "RIGHTS ACT JOB SECTION @ NEW YORK---The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. has launched a drive to speed enforcement of the fair employment section of the Civil Rights Act in 10 southern states. Negro law students are now working in southern states, th leaders of local civil rights organizations, in the education of the Negro community to tools now available for winning bett r jobs. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act went into effect July 2nd, one year after passage of the Act. 2 : The delay was designed to give employers an opportunity # = ja tt prepare for change. This project, of the Legal Defense Fund, which serves asi the legal arm of the entire civil rights movement, is under direction of Fund Assistant Counsel Michael Meltsner and LeRoy Clark. 5 f Miss Ruth Abram, a student at Sarah Lawrence College, New York, is working as coordinator. 3 In their joint announcement, Attorneys Clark and Meltsner stressed that: Assist Local Leadership "This project hopes to stimulate local leadership and community training. "Our law students are presently meeting with local Negro leaders, speaking before church, business and social groups, going to local news media----all in an attempt to educate the Negro community to the potential of Title VII. “Many are working with local NAACP branches, but they are also working with all the major national civil rights groups and many local civic’ organizations. (more) Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Legal Defense Fund in Drive ~2- July 10, 1965 To Educate Southern Negroes To 'Rights Act Job Section “ad Concentration On Cities } "They are also working closely with attorneys of the Legal Defense Fund. The students are concentrating mainly in largé southern cities, but will go wherever there are patterns of discrimination, ‘ "If Negro employees meet discrimination from employers, unions j or employment agencies, they will be advised \ of their rights to file complaints of discrimination (under ‘Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. F Agency of Conciliation "If the Commission is unable to obtain voluntary compliance (it only has the power to conciliate) within 30 days, the Legal Defense Fund will be prepared to file suit on behalf of the Negro employee," the attorneys concluded. The new law states that it is now unlawful for an employer, on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex or national origins to refuse to hire or to discharge or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment or to limit, segregate or classify on such grounds. An employment agency is forbidden to refer for employment on these grounds or to classify or to refuse to refer on such a basis. Labor organizations are forbidden to deny membership or other= wise discriminate in any way which would affect adversely an individual's status as an employee or applicant for employment. Virginia The Legal Defense Fund's Virginia worker is Richard J. Hopkins, c/o NAACP State Conference Office, 301 East Clay Street, Richmond, Virginia; who is working closely with W. Lester Banks, executive secretary of the Virginia NAACP, Young Hopkins, who is 25-years old; graduated magna cum laude from Morgan State College, Baltimore and is now enrolled at Howard University Law School. 2 (more) Legal Defense Fund in Drive -3- July 10, 1965 To Educate Southern Negroes To *Rights Act Job Section Alabama § Isaiah Madison, a former SNCC worker during his undergraduate years, before enrollment at Howard University Law School was reared in Holly Springs, Mississippi and is now working out of Mobile at P, 0, Box 1091, Mobile, Alabama. South Carolina Columbia, S. C., is heacdcuarters for ilarvin E. Maynor, who is also a student at Howard University Law School. Mr. Maynor served on the committee which formed the Human Rights Appeal that led to uniting of Atlanta's Negro students prior to the first sit-ins there. He may be reached at c/o NAACP, 2022 Taylor Street, Columbia, South Carolina. Tennessee Delbert Spurlock, a graduate of Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, is working out of Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Spurlock worked in Mississippi during the summer cf 1963 and has worked on the staff of ‘the WASHINGTON POST. He may be reached at c/o Mr. Looby, McClellan - Looby Bldg., Charlotte at Fourth, Nashville, Tennessee. Georgia ; Beverly Whatley, is the only woman field worker on the! Legal Defense Fund's employment project. She is working from Atlanta, ir, Howard Moore, 859!4 Hunter Street, Atlanta, Georgia, is also her home city. ‘iss Whatley was president of the student body at Spelman Louisiana A leader in the anti-segregation demonstrations in Baton Rouge, La., before his expulsion from Southern University, D'Army Bailey went on to graduate from Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Mr. Bailey is working from New Orleans at c/o Mr. A, P. “STureaud,; 1821 Orleans Ave., New Orleans, La. Ryo" (more) i] LegailDefense Fund in Drive <4-; July. 10, 1965 To Educate Southern Negroes To 'Rights*Act Job Section Mississippi Ainortherner, Earl L. Harris hails from Rockville Centre, Long Giana. He is now working from c/o Miss Marian Wright, 538% ferrish Street, Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. Harris is also studying at Howard University Law School and worked with SNCC during the Cambridge, Md. demonstrations. He also worked with SNCC in Mississippi. Arkansas pgkanzas complaints are being handled by the Rev, Cecil A, Cone, pastor of Union AME Church at 1500 Ringo Street, Little Rock, Arkansas, North Carolina Adam Stein, a student at George Washington University Law School, is Legal Defense Fund worker in North Carolina. He may be reached at 405!4 East Trade Street, Charlotte, North Carolina c/o Mr. Julius Chambers. Florida Ira T. Simmons, 625 West Union Street, Jacksonville, c/o Mr. Earl Johnson, is the Fund's Florida worker. -30-