LDF Joins Protest of Federally Supported Racism in Law Enforcement Units

Press Release
December 9, 1971

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- Press Releases
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- a92813b9-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 6. LDF Joins Protest of Federally Supported Racism in Law Enforcement Units, 1971. a92813b9-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/90da7981-6731-48c0-ba51-407a12c1f2d3/ldf-joins-protest-of-federally-supported-racism-in-law-enforcement-units. Accessed October 30, 2025.

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    egal AA efense und 

December 9, 1971 
For Release 11:30 a.m. 

LDF JOINS: PROTEST OF 

FEDERALLY SUPPORTED RACISM 

IN LAW ENFORCEMENT UNITS 

Washington, D.c. 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has 

announced that it is joining other organizations in requesting the 

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) to cease subsidizing 

racially discriminatory practices by law enforcement agencies. Ina 

petition submitted today to Attorney General John F. Mitchell and 

LEAA Administrator Jerris Leonard, the Organizations seek the 

issuance of regulations which will be effective in requiring such 

agencies to practice equal employment opportunity. 

LDF's interest in this subject arises from its role as counsel 

for black and other minority group persons who are members of police 

departments or who seek to be police officers in Mobile, Alabama, 

Boston, Massachusetts, Columbus, Georgia, and Charlotte, North 

Carolina. All of these cities have received grants from LEAA to 

subsidize their police departments. Yet in Mobile a federal court 

found that the police department was discriminatorily assigning 

officers on the basis of race. Another federal court in Boston found 

that the tests administered to applicants for police positions 

throughout Massachusetts discriminated against blacks, Spanish origin 

persons, and others who had been denied the opportunity for a 

"mainstream" American education. These discriminatory practices were 

AACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-8397, 
liam T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Director-Counsel 



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enjoined by the courts. 

In Columbus and Charlotte, black police officers have charged 

in federal court suits that the Police Departments have discriminated 

in the granting of promotions, assignments and the administration 

of discipline. In Columbus specifically, a peaceful demonstration 

by black officers led to the discharge of seven of them and a 

community wide protest. 

LEAA has taken no action in these or other cities to seek an end 

to these practices or to terminate its grants to these agencies, the 

petition charges. It seeks the issuances of new regulations which 

would be modeled after those of the Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance, the agencies 

which oversee the employment practices of private industry. At the 

present time, the petition charges, law enforcement agencies receiving 

federal grants are less rigidly scrutinized than private firms with 

government contracts. 

=30= 

For further information contact: Jeffrey Mintz - (212) 586-8397

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LDF Joins Protest of Federally Supported Racism in Law Enforcement Units

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