U.S. Supreme Court Gets South Carolina Negro Teacher Case

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

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN o> THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director and Counsel 

ROY WILKINS ae ROBERT L. CARTER 
Secretary Assistant Counsel 

ALFRED BAKER LEWIS ARNOLD de MILLE 
Treasurer Press Relations 

U. S, SUPREME COURT GETS 
SOUTH CAROLINA NEGRO TEACHER CASE April 23, 1957 

WASH., D.C., Apr. 22.--A South Carolina statute requiring Negro 

teachers to make a statement under oath as to membership in the NAACP 

was challenged today in a Jurisdictional Statement filed with the 

U. S. Supreme Court by attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund, Inc. 

The statute, passed in March 1956 by the South Carolina General 

Assembly, makes it unlawful for any state agency to employ members 

of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 

and carries a fine cf $100 for state officials disobeying the Act. 

The statute also provides for the immediate dismissal of any 

Negro teacher who refuses to submit "a written statement under oath 

setting forth whether or not he is a member of the National Associa- 

tion for the Advancement of Colored People." 

The brief filed here today is in behalf of 17 Negro teachers 

who were compelled to resign their jobs in the Elloree Training 

School, Orangeburg County, for refusing to answer questionnaires as 

to their membership with the NAACP and their views as to the desira- 

bility of segregation in the schools. The statement challenges the 

constitutionality of the South Carolina statute. 

The action is on appeal from the U. S. District Court for the 

Eastern District of South Carolina, Charleston Division, where the 

Act was first challenged before a three-judge court consisting of 

Chief Judge John J. Parker, District Judges George Bell Timmerman 

and Ashton H. Williams. The teachers then sought an order restrain= 

ing state officials from enforcing the statute. 

Judge Williams, in his opinion, declared: 

"There is no dispute as to the facts. Plaintiffs are seventeen 

Negro teachers, who had bem employed in Elloree Training School of 

School District No. 7 of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, prior to 



2. 

June 1956 for varying periods of time; one as long as ten years. 

There is evidence to the effect that they were competent teachers 

and there is no evidence that their service was unsatisfactory in 

any waye . »" 

"When plaintiffs in May of 1956 were given blank applications 

by the School Superintendent to be filled out and sworn to, which 

contained questions as to their membership in the Association and 

their views as to desirability of segregation in the schools, they 

declined to answer these questions. Only one of the plaintiffs, 

however, was a member of the Association. Upon being told that 

they would have to fill in the answers or tender their resignations, 

they chose the latter course and were not elected for the ensuing 

year." 

Each member of the District Court wrote a separate opinion. 

Judge Timmerman concurred with Judge Williams that the case should 

remain pending and that during this time the plaintiffs should carry 

it to the state courts, Attorneys for the teachers contend the case 

should have been decided by the United StatesDistrict Court and that 

the Supreme Court should hold the statute unconstitutional. 

In their brief to the High Court the attorneys argue that the 

South Carolina Act is unconstitutional on the ground that it destroys 

the right to freedom of speech and assembly, denies equal protection 

of the laws, and that it inflicts punishment without judicial trial. 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund attorneys for the 

Negro teachers are Thurgood Marshall, Robert L. Carter and Jack 

Greenberg of New York City, and Lincoln C. Jenkins, Jr., of Columbia, 

South Carolina. 

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