Legal Defense Fund Protects Its Contributors in Virginia

    ‘PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
TOCOLUMBUS CIRCLE » NEWYORK19,N.Y. «© JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

LEGAL DEFENSE FUND PROTECTS 
ITS CONTRIBUTORS IN VIRGINIA 

December 5, 1963 

RICHMOND, Va.~---Names of Virginia contributors to the NAACP Legal 

Defense Fund and to the NAACP---a separate corporation, are not to be 

given to public officials, it was ruled here this week, 

The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals said that no legislative 

committee is entitled to the names and addresses of donors of $25.00 

or more to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or to the NAACP. 

Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the Fund, served ag chief 

counsel of the platoon of attorneys, James M. Nabrit, III conducted 

the proceedings on behalf of the Fund's New York headquarters. 

Lawrence Douglas Wilder was local attorney for the Fund, and 

Samuel W, Tucker represented the NAACP, 

The Virginia Legislative Committee, which sought the names, 

contended that such data was needed in order to determine if donors 

had illegally deducted their contributions from state income tax 

forms, 

Mr. Nabrit told the court that "there is no evidence that any 

contributor to the Legal Defense Fund or to the NAACP, has claimed a 

deduction" in violation of Virginia law. 

The court said that there was no reason to believe “that donors 

to the organizations involved would likely violate the tax laws than 

any other persons," 

The basic aim and purpose of the NAACP is to secure, for 

\merican Negroes, those rights guaranteed them by the Constitution 

and laws of the United States, the lawyers said. 

It seeks to better Negro job opportunities, legislation, voting 

sights, educational opportunities, housing and other major areas, 

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Legal Defense Fund Protects -2- 
Its Contributors in Virginia 

Legal Defense Fund attorneys argued that the Fund operates for 

the purpose of: 

* rendering free legal aid to Negroes facing racial 

bias. 

* promating equal educational facilities for Negroes. 

* conducting research and pu>lishing findings on Negro 

educational facilities and oppoxtunities. 

The Virginia court held that compulsoty disclosure of the 

donors' names would violate the Fourteenth Amendment by infringing 

freedom of association and privacy of association. 

The court also held that exposure of donors might lead to 

harassment, intimidation, enmity and social and economic reprisal. 

It bluntly stated that: 

" Qne would have to be deeply insensible to the affairs of 

present day life, or a modern Rip Van Winkle, to fail to observe the 

opposition in Virginia and in many parts of the nation to the 

activities of the NAACP and its affiliates in the field of racial 

relations." 

Previous attempts to require disclosure of organization members 

in Florida, Alabama and Louisiana have been halted by the courts, 

San