Memorandum on Federal Court Hearing in the Case of Eviction of Indigent Mother of 4 and Consequent Denial of Due Process
Press Release
March 17, 1967
Cite this item
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Press Releases, Volume 4. Memorandum on Federal Court Hearing in the Case of Eviction of Indigent Mother of 4 and Consequent Denial of Due Process, 1967. 365c8299-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/b2a5d2a8-5788-440d-aa87-a144f29bcfc8/memorandum-on-federal-court-hearing-in-the-case-of-eviction-of-indigent-mother-of-4-and-consequent-denial-of-due-process. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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To
President
Hon, Francis E. Rivers
PRESS RELEASE Director Counsel
egal ’fense und Jack Greenberg
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. i pee Nectar
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8467
FOR RELEASE
FRIDAY
March 17, 1967
MEMORANDUM
TO: Atlanta Reporters
FROM: Jesse DeVore, Director of Public Information
Be U.S. Federal Court hearing March 17, 1967 in the case
of the eviction of an indigent mother of four and
consequent denial of due process and equal protection
of the law.
NATIONAL ANGLE: The same potential abuses exist in the approximately
1400 local housing authorities with low-rent projects
across America,
WHERE & WHEN: Three-judge U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Georgia, Friday afternoon, March 17, 1967
(likely to continue on Monday morning}, in Atlanta.
ATLANTA---The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF)
attorneys will represent Miss Josephine Williams, an indigent mother of
four, residing in the Perry Homes, a public housing project in Atlanta,
Georgia, on Friday in the U.S. District Court here.
LDF attorneys Howard Moore and Charles H, Jones, Jr. will maintain
that Miss Williams was denied due process and equal protection of the
law as a result of the eviction proceedings lodged against her by
officials of Perry Homes.
They will argue that Miss Williams had no hearing before her evic-
tion and that her inability to post a large cash bond before she could
defend the eviction in a state court denied her equal protection avail-
able to the more affluent.
In order to present the involved sequence of events, we cite the
following chronologically:
12/8/66: Officials of the Atlanta Housing Authority filed a summary
eviction notice against Miss Williams,
12/12/66: LDF attorneys filed a motion to defend Miss Williams in
Fulton County Civil Court without posting bond,
2/28/67: Fulton County Civil Court denied LDF motion,
2/28/67: LDF attorneys filed motion for a stay of Miss Williams'
eviction in the Fulton County Civil Court.
2/28/67: LDF attorneys filed motion for stay of eviction with the
Georgia Supreme Court,
3/4/67: LDF attorneys pre-filed application for stay of eviction with
Mr. Justice Black of the U.S. Supreme Court.
3/8/67: Fulton County Civil Court denied LDF motion for a stay of
Miss Williams' eviction.
3/8/67: Georgia Supreme Court denied motion for stay of eviction.
3/8/67: Mr. Justice Black denied LDF application for stay of eviction
3/8/67: Mr. Justice Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court denied LDF
application for stay of eviction,
3/9/67: LDF attorneys filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of Georgia seeking a temporary
restraining order and a complaint for a preliminary and per-
manent injunction,
3/9/67: The U.S. District Court granted LDF attorneys a temporary
restraining order blocking the eviction of Miss Williams, and
set hearing for March 17, 1967,
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