The Importance of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund by A. Maceo Walker President, National Insurance Association

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PRESS RELEASE® } 

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

ARTHUR B, SPINGARN Ce THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director and Counsel 

ROBERT L. CARTER sr ila hatte Corea 
ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD De MILLE 
Treosurer Press Relations 

FOR RELEASE: Upon receipt 

NOPE TO EDITOR: This is another in a series of articles 
written by outstanding leaders in American 
life supporting the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc. in its efforts to 
obtain through the courts full citizenship 
and "equal justice under law" for all Negro 
Americans. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND 

by A. Maceo Walker 
President, National Insurance Association 

Are Negroes free to vote as they please in all sections of the 

United States? 

Are Negroes free to attend all public schools and colleges in 

all sections of the United States? 

Are Negroes free to enjoy all recreational facilities supported 

by public funds? 

The answer to these questions is an emphatic "No." 

The United States is the greatest democracy on earth. Yet, in 

many areas (the State of Mississippi is an example), Negroes are 

denied the right to vote. 

The right to vote is the inalienable right of all citizens under 

a democratic form of government. Until all qualified Negro voters 

are granted this right everywhere in the United Stetes, we are in 

need of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 

All Americans who love Democracy, White or Negro, and most 

certainly all Negroes, should contribute to the Legal Defense Fund. 

The May 17, 1954 decision and the May 31, 1955 implementation 

order of the Supreme Court are great and unprecedented victories. 

Many of us are under the impression that there was an absolute final- 

ity involved. This is not true. This is only the starting point. 

Some of our Southern governors have pledged to fight to the last 

ditch. 

In some instances, it will be necessary that the NAACP Legal 

Defense Fund press suits county by county and city by city. This 

will be not only a long but a very costly project. Many thousands of 



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dollars will be required to press these suits. This is why it is 

so vitally necessary that we rally to the support of the NAACP Legal 

Defense Hund with our gifts in money, large and small. The Fund is 

in need of money. Lip service will not accomplish the job. 

It is a sad and lamentable fact that the Southern governors who 

have pledged to fight in behalf of segregated schools the hardest 

have provided the poorest school systems for Negro children, 

Inferior education has been largely the means (along with job 

discrimination) of keeping the Negro a second-class citizen. That 

is the reason why segregated school systems must be abolished, A 

segregated school system will always be inferior. This has been 

true for ninety years. There is no basis of fact to support the 

statement that we can have "separate but equal.” 

Our children must have equal education. 

The time has long since passed when a child, poorly equipped in 

formal training, can compete in our advanced civilization. It is 

becoming more and more difficult to pull ourselves up by our own 

bootstraps unless we have the proper educational background. We 

cannot fail our children now. 

The fight for full citizenship has not been won and will not be 

won as long as Negroes and other minority groups are discriminated 

against in any phase of our democratic way of life. 

While the NAACP Legal Defense Fund can proudly point to a long 

line of continued success in cases in its struggle for "equal justice 

under law," our old man "Jim Crow" is not yet dead. The NAACP Legal 

Defense Fund and none of us can afford to relax until, with the help 

of God, we see the end of segregation and Jim Crow. 

Let us all contribute to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fundt! Send your contributions today--now. The address is 107 West 

43rd Street, New York 36, N. Y. 

[Editor's Note: Contributions made to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund 
can be deducted from your income tax.] 

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