Suit Against Raleigh YMCA Seeks to Halt Segregation
Press Release
October 8, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Suit Against Raleigh YMCA Seeks to Halt Segregation, 1965. 6b61084d-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/87574507-4983-41a7-bb79-b28c9fb0a5a1/suit-against-raleigh-ymca-seeks-to-halt-segregation. Accessed April 30, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE ea FOR RELEASE Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Friday»setober 8, 1905. Director-Counsel F eyed Crecubore SUIT AGAINST RALEIGH YMCA SEEKS TO HALT SEGREGATION RALEIGH, N.C.--NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund lawyers filed suit in federal district court here today seeking to end racial segregation at the Raleigh Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. The suit alleges that segregation is a violation of the Public Accommodations Section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Defendants in the action are the YMCA of Raleigh Inc. and C. Lynn Brown, president of the corporation's executive committee. The Negro plaintiff, Samuel E. NeSmith, alleges he was denied services and accommodations at the YMCA in August. A separate YMCA branch is maintained in Raleigh for Negroes. The suit asks the court to permanently enjoin the YMCA from maintaining a policy of racial segregation. The Legal Defense Fund launched a campaign against segregated YMCA's in Frebruary. Suits were filed against YMCA's in Charlotte, N. C., and Norfolk, Va., and both branches desegregated before the cases came to trial. At that time, a survey by the YMCA National Council indicated that 180 of the 1,800 branches-in the United States practiced total or partial segregation. A similar survey last month indicated that over 60.branches remain segregated, including nine each in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia; seven each in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi; six in Florida; two each in Virginia, Arkansas and Texas; and one in Tennessee. . Legal Defense Fund attorneys involved in» the suit are Conrad O. Pearson of Durham, Samuel Mitchell and Romallus 0. Murphy of Raleigh, J, LeVonne Chambers of Charlotte, Jack Greenberg, Fund director- counsel, and Michael Meltsner of the Fund's New York staff. --30-- Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487