Greenberg Statement Asking That Negroes Not Be Denied Access to Negro Publications

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Yu 
if 
ead President 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 
egal efense lund Jack Greenberg 

Director, Public Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Jesse DeVore, Jr. 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

Statement by Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel, 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 
10 Columbus Circle, New York City, September 5, 1968, 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has dis- 
patched a strong statement to prison officials in all eleven 
southern states urging them to make certain that Negro prisoners 
are not denied access to Negro publications. 

This recent action by LDF sprang from a decision the U.S. Court 
of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit made in July. 

to Ebony and Sepia magazines and the Amsterdam News, all Negro 
publications. 

In this case (Jackson v, Godwin), the court decided that 
"Negro inmates of state or correctional institutions could not 
be denied access to magazines and newspapers of reasonable quality 
published for a Negro audience." 

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A Negro from a Florida prison charged that he was denied access 

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Further, the court found that "rigid scrutiny must be brought | 
to bear on the justifications for encroachments on such rights." 
The court recognized that its decisio.: would be of "far reaching 
consequences, to both the federal and state prison systems, 
particularly in the Fifth Judicial Circuit." 

In this, our most recent action, I have informed the prison 
officials in the South that LDF has received numerous complaints 
from Negro inmates held in correctional institutions of their 
respective states, In effect, the complaints were that Negro 
newspapers, magazines, and Negro history books were either not 
available to prisoners or prohibited as reading material. | 
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We have pointed out that since the Court of Appeals has held 
that denial of access to such reading material violates consti- 
tutional guarantees of freedom of speech and freedom from racial 
discrimination, our request wes that they, the prison officials, 
investigate promptly the policies of their prison systems and 
make such changes in prevailing practices as are necessary to 
assure the availability to Negro inmates of newspapers, maga- 
zines, and other publications addressed to a Negro audience. 

To date, we have had replies from Alabama, Tennessee, Ar- 
kansas, and also Washington, D.C. All except Arkansas, said 
their policies complied with the court ruling. 

The State Board of Corrections in Arkansas, replied that sub- 
scriptions to specific magazines are contributed by community 
groups and that they have no voice in these selections. 

These replies notwithstanding, LDF cooperating attorneys 
throughout the South will continue this investigation. The 
prospect is that there will be additional litigation in this 
area. 

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