Legal Efforts Must Go on by Dr. Frederick Douglas Patterson

    + PRESS RELEASE® e 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET * NEW YORK 36, N. Y. « 

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN Cd 
President 

WALTER WHITE 
Secretory 
ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS 
Treasurer 

FOR RELEASE: JUNE 29, 1955 

NOTE TO EDITOR: This is another in a series of articles 
written by outstanding leaders in the f 

JUdson 6-8397 

THURGOOD MARSHALL 
Director and Counsel 

ROBERT L. CARTER 
Assistant Counsel 

ARNOLD De MILLE 
Press Relations 

ields 
of education, religion, labor, business and 
the professions in support of the NAACP Legal 
Defense and Educational Fund special fund- 
raising campaign. 

LEGAL EFFORTS MUST GO ON 

by Dr. Frederick Douglas Patterson 
Founder and President United Negro College Fund 

Director of the Phelps-Stokes Fund 

The gradual and consistent removal of those legal barriers which 

deny to Negro Americans the full privileges and obligati 

zens of the United States has been due in large measure 

ons of citi- 

to the 

persistent and effective efforts of the NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund. 

Though these gains have been most noticeable in the South, they 

have in fact occurred in nearly every section of the United States, 

In the South changes for the better have occurred in the past twenty- 

five years which are greater than those that occurred in the previous 

seventy-five year period. These changes have involved almost every 

area in which legal prohibition has existed to prevent Negroes from 

sharing a right of their citizenship. Consequently, in every state, 

barriers to the franchise have been removed or substantially lessened; 

embarrassing restrictions in travel have been curtailed and the Supreme 

Court has ruled that restrictive covenants cannot be legally enforced; 

teachers salaries have been equalized or greatly improved; school 

property has been significantly improved in quality and expanded, and 

now, since the decision of the Supreme Court on May 17th last, many 

schools at all levels and over a wide geographical area have abandoned 

racial restrictions in their enrollment requirements. 

To be a part of this Southern scene as an American Negro is to 

experience the great surge of hope which these gains have brought. 

This surge of hope aggravates rather than lessens, however, the 



ie 
gh too. @ @ 

restiveness to be felt by those inconveniences, hardships and embarrass- 

ments which remain in a culture which stubbornly resists change. 

Deep-rooted practices, no matter how inhumane, are difficult to root 

out, except as the legal basis which gives them sanction is eliminated. 

Only this fact can explain the plight of many white people of good 

will in the South who find themselves as helpless as Negroes to correct 

wrongs based on race, 

As long as such wrongs find support in laws and constitutional 

provisions of the several states, so long will they continue to provide 

fodder for political demagoguery. 

The United States is a nation ofone hundred sixty million people 

with a diversity of traditions, attitudes and practices. Many of these 

which have been in existence for a long time continue to deny citizen- 

ship rights to American Negroes. Therefore, despite the gains cited, 

further persistent and more extensive legal efforts are required to 

bolster educational and other approaches to insure equal opportunity 

for all American citizens. 

There is no better way to help in this cause or to show apprecia- 

tion to those who have so unreservedly given their time and talents to 

the cause of legal justice for the nation's largest minority group than 

by giving moral and financial support to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 

For theirs is the task of guarding the fundamental rights of Negro 

Americans, 

We are fortunate that in a democracy adjudication in the courts 

through due process of law is regarded as the just and right way of 

correcting wrongs imbedded in the social and economic fabric, No 

American who uses these courts or supports efforts to use them can right- 

fully be regarded as other than a friend to the democratic process. 

Those who have guided the Legal Defense Fund have performed with 

tact and vigor. Sensing the timeliness of their cause in view of the 

world ferment for human rights, they have challenged our nation, in 

view of its position of world leadership, to a full facing of the 

issues and to take those steps which would lead the American people 

boldly in the direction of the full implementation of the nation's 

ideals of freedom and equality among its citizens, In so doing the Legal 

Defense Fund has functioned as a practical instrument of American 

Democracy and as such it is fully worthy of the support it seeks, 

Your support is needed. Send your contributions today to NAACP 

Legal Defense & Educational Fund, 107 West 3rd St., New York 36, N.Y. 



PRESS RELEASE@ @ 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET © NEW YORK 36, N. Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN oe THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director ond Counsel 

WALTER WHITE ROBERT L. CARTER 
Secretary Assistant Counsel 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD De MILLE 
Treasurer Press Relations 

W. W, WACHTEL ELECTED TO 
LEGAL DEFENSE BOARD June 1, 1955 

NEW YORK, June 1.--W. W. Wachtel of New York, president of 

Calvert Distillers Co., has been elected to the Board of Directors 

of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Thurgood Marshall, 

director-counsel, announced today. 

Election of Mr, Wachtel brings Legal Defense Board to a total 

of 33 members, consisting of business, labor, civic, educational 

and professional leaders, Mr. Marshall said. 

Mr. Wachtel was recently cited for his famous Lord Calvert's 

"Men of Distinction" advertising series of which he is the originator, 

His company was the first national advertiser to inject interracial 

element in its advertising campaigns. 

A recipient of the George Washington Carver Gold Award for the 

promotion of "brotherhood of man," Mr, Wachtel is an honorary member 

of the National Aau Kappa Alpha, a forensic society in 150 colleges 

and universities, a member of the American Institute of Management, 

a member of the Board of Brand Names Foundation and member of the 

Political Science Academy of Columbia University. 

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