Negroes in Atlantic City Claim Jury Discrimination - LDF Files for Court Injunction

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President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 
egal ‘efense und Jack Greenberg | 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. FOR IMMEDIATE ‘RREBASE om 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NiGiT women 212-749-8487 

NEGROES IN ATLANTIC CITY 

CLAIM JURY DISCRIMINATION 

Legal Defense Fund Files For Court Injunction 

NEW YORK, NEW YORK--The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 

Inc., with its successful record of attacks on southern jury 

discrimination, filed suit today against jury officials in New 

Jersey. 

On behalf of Negro residents of Atlantic City, the Legal Defens<« 

Fund brought suit against jury commissioners, the sheriff and board 

of election officials of Atlantic County, charging them with delibe- 

rate and systematic exclusion of qualified Negroes from petit and 

grand juries. 

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, James N. Finney of LDF and Patricx 

McGhan of Atlantic City, point out that ten per cent of Atlantic 

County's population is black and qualified for jury duty. Despite 

this fact, the names of only a very small number of them have been 

placed on the county's jury rolls, the attorneys say. 

Negroes, they say, have been omitted from the jury rolls be- 

cause of the following major reasons: 

* deliberate and systematic exclusion by defendants of Negro 

citizens within the county because of race. 

* deliberate and systematic limitation of the number of Negro 

citizens called to serve on juries. 

* failure by defendants to acquaint themselves with Negro 

citizens in county to the same extent to which they ac- 
quaint themselves with whites. 

* double standard of jury selection. 

* the Board of elections’ practice of listing all registered 

voters by the symbols "C" or “W" on all official registered 

voter records, the only source from which the names of 

potential jurors are selected. 

The attorneys hold these practices to be in violation of the 

equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

They have asked the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where the sui' 

was filed, to declare the alleged abuses unconstitutional and to 

issue a permanent injunction against the defendants and their cohorts 

e 

LDF attorney Finney said that "fn this day of “law and order" 

Negroes, now more than ever, must exercise their Constitutional 

right to be judged by their peers. This means, necessarily, that 

blacks in the community must be able to serve on juries; that the 

barriers which prevent them from serving must be struck down.” 

He said this case is part of LDF's overall program to cut away 

every remaining barrier which stands in the way of black people, 
preventing them from fully exercising every right guaranteed them 

by the Constitution. 
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NOTE: Please bear in mind that the LDF is a completely separate 

organization even though we were established by the NAACP 

and those initials are retained in our name. Our correct 

designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc- 

frequently shortened to LDF.