LDF Suit Charges Bias in Federally Aided County Nursing Home in Alabama
Press Release
November 4, 1966
Cite this item
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Press Releases, Volume 4. LDF Suit Charges Bias in Federally Aided County Nursing Home in Alabama, 1966. 60f0f54a-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ae9fdb89-7709-40e6-bb28-27f5de67d396/ldf-suit-charges-bias-in-federally-aided-county-nursing-home-in-alabama. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle
New York, N.Y. 10019
JUdson 6-8397
NAACP
Legal Defense and Educat:onal Fund
PRESS RELEASE
OFieun Beanie Es Rivers
Director-Counsel
Jack Greenberg
FOR RELEASE
FRIDAY
November 4, 1966
LDF SUIT CHARGES BIAS IN FEDERALLY
AIDED COUNTY NURSING HOME IN ALABAMA
Motion Filed to Compel Defendant to Follow
Anti-Bias Guidelines Under Federal Aid Programs
BIRMINGHAM---Lawyers for the Legal Defense Fund have filed a suit this
morning in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Alabama enjoining the Ketona County Nursing Home from continuing their
discriminatory practices against Negro patients residing in the area.
The nursing home, a non-profit charitable organization, is owned
and financed by Jefferson County for the purpose of providing a place
for "all citizens of Jefferson County to receive rest, recuperation,
rehabilitation and medical services."
Legal Defense Fund lawyers have filed this “class action" suit in
behalf of the Negro residents of Jefferson County.
The attorneys for the plaintiffs pointed out in the suit that,
under the Fourteenth and the Fifth Amendments, the Negro residents in
Jefferson County also qualify to obtain medical and hospitalization
attention as provided by the defendant nursing home without discrimina-
tion on the basis of race and color.
The Fund lawyers further invoked the jurisdiction of the Court
under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and charged the de-
fendant nursing home with receiving substantial funds from the U.S.
Government for welfare administration, public assistance, and voca-~
tional administration as payment for services rendered recipients.
Nursing homes that receive funds through federally aided programs,
such as Medicare or state welfare programs, are covered by Title VI
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or
national origin in any program receiving federal financial assistance.
The defendant nursing home is charged in the suit for maintainira
"separate buildings,” administering separate treatment for Negro and
white patients suffering from the same ailment, and employing Negro
nurses, clerks, and technical personnel only in buildings reserved for
Negro patients.
This suit is the first of its kind filed against a public nursince
home.
The Legal Defense Fund attorneys handling this case are Demetrius
Newton of Birmingham, and Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg, Michael
Meltsner, and Bobby Hill of New York.
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Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss