Memorandum on Eilers v. Eilers Anderson Case

McKinnie v. Tennessee Reply Brief preview

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Impact area
- Economic Justice
Topic
- Economic Justice
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- Brief Collection
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- 40e48dae-bc9a-ee11-be36-6045bdeb8873

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Memorandum on Eilers v. Eilers Anderson Case, 1966. d3674dde-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/c1fb477a-1681-40d8-acec-51290c47f1af/memorandum-on-eilers-v-eilers-anderson-case. Accessed August 19, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

President 

lation. Beancis 1a Rivers 
Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg FOR RELEASE 

Thursday, March 24 1966 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: WORKING PRESS 

FROM: Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director, Public Information 

RE: "Five Potato, Ten Potato" 

FORMER WHITE MATE RESENTS NEW NEGRO 
HUSBAND: DEMANDS CHILDREN'S CUSTODY 

LOUISVILLE, KY.---A hearing to determine the future of five white 
children, their mother and her new Negro husband will be held in 
U, S. Federal District Court here Friday, March 25 at 9:30 A, M. 

Mrs. Francis Eilers Anderson wants her children returned to 
her new home. All five youngsters are presently being cared for 
in homes provided by the court pending outcome of the hearing. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Attorney Leroy D, Clark of the Fund's 
national headquarters will join local attorney James Crumlin on 
behalf of the mother. 

Mrs. Anderson divorced George Eilers in June of 1963 on 
grounds that he was "unfit to act as father and husband." She 
gained custody of the children. 

She subsequently married Marshall Anderson, a Negro, in 
Illinois in January of 1964 amd moved to a predominantly Negro 
neighborhood in Louisville. 

The following month, Mr, Eilers petitioned the local circuit 
court for custodysef the children on the sole ground that the new 

g husband was a Negro. 

Kentucky law declares marriage between a white and a Negro 

illegal and void. 

Circuit Judge Lyndon B, Schmid ordered the children removed 
from their mother and issued an order saying "rearing these 
children in a racially mixed atmosphere will per se indoctrinate 
them with a psychology of inferiority." 

Attorney Crumlin, questioned a letter sent in January of 
1965 by Judge Schmid, which stated: 

"Since the divorce, the mother has married out of her race and 
the court feels the best interests of the children require that 
they be reared in a home other than the one maintained by the 
mother and her new husband." 

=30- 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Attorney Clark may be reached during the day at 
Area Code 502, JU 5-2374 and at 772-7994 during the evening. 
He represents the * NAACP Legal Defense Fund" which is a separate 
organization from the NAACP itself, 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 So

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McKinnie v. Tennessee Reply Brief

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