Correspondence from Jackson to Clyde; Payments Begin in Norfolk and Western Railway Suit; News Clippings on N&W Back Pay Case; Memorandum from Murphy to Lewis (Redacted)

    314 

— 

Law 

DeELK, JAMES & JACKSON 

305 GREATER NORFOLK PLAZA 

FENCHURCH STREET 

SEWARD OEY NorFoLk, VIRGINIA 23510 
gle 

JEROME JAMES 

622 

GWENOOLYN JONES JACKSON January 18, 1979 

Attorney Clyde Murphy 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund 

Suite 2030 
10 Columbus Circle 

New York, N.Y. 10019 

Re: Rock, et. al. vs. N. & W. Rwy. Co., et. al. 

- Contribution to NAACP-LDF from mother of 

deceased class member, P. Smith 

Dear Clyde: 

Enclosed please find my Trust Account check in the amount 

of $100.00 payable to the NAACP-Legal Defer Fund as 

a contribution from Mrs. Eva Moore, mother of deceased 

class member, P. Smith, 224-28-9923. 

Mr. Moore brought a total amount of $100.00 ¢ 

my office today on pehalf of his wife, Eva Moore, 

who is blind. Both of them are truly appreciative 

for the excellent work the NAACP-Legal Defense Fund 

has achieved and is still accomplishing. 

Please send them a receipt and a thank you note. Their 

address is: 

Thank you. Very tzfly yours 
j- 

t CLE } \ 

ndolyn Jones Jackson 

GJJ:sdt 
Enclosure 
ec: Mr. and Mrs. Moore 

Morris Baller 
W. T. Mason, 

i =e i =m ct Em TEE 

105 

Januar, 68-214 muary 1019 Ug toga 
¢ 100,00 F 

Sees ONE HUNDRED AND 00/100 ore 
2 eae a Ree ____ DOLLARS 

719 

a NAACP-Legal Defense and Education Fund 



NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC 

egal efense lund — 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 « (212) 586-8397 

From: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Ince. 
Ten Columbus Circle 
New York New York 10019 

(212) 586-8397 

Contact: Clyde Murphy 

og News Desk 

PAYMENTS BEGIN IN NORFOLK & WESTERN RAILWAY SUIT 

New York, New York, October 25 - Distribution began today 

of the first $250,000 of a million dollar settlement won by 

the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) against 

the Norfolk and Western Railway and the United Transportation 

Union on behalf of present and former black employees who were 

discriminated against by the company and Local 550 of the union. 

The quarter of a million dollars constitutes damages assessed 

against the union by the U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Virginia 

and will be distributed among 209 present and former employees 

or their descendants, The remainder of the million dollar 

settlement will be awarded among the class as back pay according 

to a formula approved by the court. 

Originally filed in 1969, the case was settled in May 

1978 against the company and in September 1978 against the 

union. Besides back pay and damages, claims of discrimination 

in training, promotion, seniority systems, work groups and 

work facilities were upheld. The union was charged with 

maintaining segregated locals. Generally, black workers were 

-more- 

Contributions are deductible for U.S. income tax purposes 
The NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL FUND is not part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People although it 
was founded by it and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF has had for over 20 years a separate Board, program, staff, office and budget. 



restricted to working at the company's Barney yard 

which moved fewer products than the CT yard where whi 

were in the majority. As a result, black employees had fewer 

opportunities for overtime work and were often laid off. In 

addition, workers were not allowed to transfer from one yard 

to the other without losing all of their seniority; whites were 

promoted to supervisory positions after being trained by 

blacks who were seldom promoted. 

The consent decree orders that the two seniority rosters 

be combined; that blacks be given equal opportunities 

promotion, that segregated work groups and work areas and 

union locals be abolished. 

Note to Editors: The NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC., 

(LDF) is not a part of the National Association for the Advancement 
of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) though it was founded by that 
organization and shares its commitment to equal rights. For 20 
years, LDF has had its own Board of Directors, budget, staff, 
office and program. 

## tet # 



Payments 

Newswire all papers/TV/radio 

"folk Ledger-Star/Virginian-Pilot 

[3 WA VY 
WTAR 
WVEC 

WTID 
NOWL 



y 

By HARRY WILLIAMS 
Ledger-Star Staff Writer 

NORFOLK — Norfolk & Western Rail- 
y Co. today agreed to pay $825,000 to 
employees or former employees as a 

result of a 1969 class. al diserimi 
nalion suit against the company 

<4 

action ra 

In addition to the payment, the railway 
and the plaintifts agreed the company will 
increase monthly wages of 85 employ: 
by $125 a month, retroactive to Fehr 

The agreements are part of a de 
heard and approved taday m U.S. Dis 
Court by Judge John A. MacKenzie 

The decree stipulates the $825,000 pay 
ment will satisly all monetary clams. in 
cluding back pay, interest, fringe ben 
employer tax contributions and railroad re 
tirement contributions 

Individual awards will be distribute 
cording to @ schedule to be drawn by the 
plaintiffs and subinitted to the court within 
60 days. 

The recipients include current or former 
employees who worked at the terminal af 
ter July 2, 1968, 

The $125 monthy pay hike will go to cer- 
tain employees affected by the 1962 merger 
of the Norfolk & Western Railway and the 
New York, Chicago & St. Louts Railroad 
Co. 

ie discrimination suit was filed June 2, 
1969 by Robert Rock, Kzelle B. Jolinson 
and Russel C Wa 1 af Narfoll._ Also 
named as defendants in the suit were the 
United ‘Transportation Union and Local 
Lodge 590. Neither was party to the cat 
way settlement 
WT. Mason Jr., one of several attorneys 

Tepresenting the plaintiffs, said the clams: 
against the union and the local are sult in 
litigation 

The order said that since the 1 
several court orders have “change 
employment practices at the Norfolk. vet 
minal, including the seniority: status. and 
training uf employees." 

Hock and other phantitts i the disor 
tuation stttt all real Hue atin locals one 

Hand that NAW matutanned 
mMorily beter 

race tor the purpose of continuing segre 
gated work groups and work areas < 

The plaintitis also al F the railwa 
e Negroes on UY 

since 1947, said “al the beginning. I felt { 

was discriminated a t, But itis a great NX feeling that we have accomplished what 
eset forth to do. [think we have gotten 9, 
Pes RN 

that ean speak for the grup mS 

honest livelthood, just as well as the 
white 



Back-Pay Order 
Continued from Page Bl 

ps and work areas. segregated seniority rosters. sub: 
eted blacks to more menial and dirtier jobs, failed to 
vide blacks with an equal opportunity for advancement, 
vuntaine’d segregated toilet and locker facilities, main- 

wned @ racially discriminatory apprenticeship program, 
ad dig nothing to correct any of this. 

Johnson, who retired as a yard foreman after the suit 
aw, filed, Thursday recalled a time when he said blacks 
ere prohibited from holding supervisory positions on the 
ulyoad 

Wes were called by the union ‘unpromotable men," 
vd we found that that referred to the black men. They 

ould take a white man even from out of our class (job 
assification), and because he was white he worked the 
yreman job and we could not do it. 

“A white man would come there and we would do all 
@ work and know how to do it and teach him, and they 
ould not let us do it. They said it was a white man’s job 
id no black man could have it,” he said. 

In an earlier development in the case, Judge MacKen- 
e found discrimination. But the 4th Circuit Court of Ap- 
eals twice reversed his remsdies for it. 

Most of the black employes of the railroad worked in 
hat was known as the Barney Yard near the coal piers. 

ost of the white employes worked in the CT Yard, which 
»ok in the rest of the railroads Lamberts Point facilities, 

Blacks couldn't transfer their seniority from the Bar- 
*y Yard to the CT Yard, where there was much more 
ork, Mason said. Consequently, blacks would be laid off 
hile whites were being hired, he said. 

Judge MacKenzie ordered the whites to go at the bot- 
om of the Barney Yard seniority roster and the blacks to 

placed on the bottom of the CT Yard roster. This was 
pealed and the 4th Circuit Court ordered the two seniori- 
rosters combined into one, Mason said, 

Mason and his colleague, Ms. Gwendolyn Johnson, are 
Prepare a list of the class members and the amounts 

sey are to receive and submit it to the court within 60 

ays. From these sums, federal and state taxas will be de- 
acted before they are paid. 

If a class member cannot be located, his share is to 
» held by the court, which will decide what to do with it 
iter hearing suggestions from Mason and Johnson. Dis- 
‘bution of the awards is to be made within 45 days after 

he court approves the distribution plan. 

Since the money is back pay, distribution will be based 
‘uefly on seniority. 

The $125-per-month pay increase will go to men who 
ere employed by N&W when it merged with New York, 
ficago & St. Louis Railroad Co. Jan. 10, 1962. In that 
erger agreement was a wage guarantee agreement that 
as applied to blacks bired later but not to blacks hired 
fore 

‘The hike is to be in addition to any other pay increase 
» which the men are entitled 

FROMEL IL SPECS ASE 

Pa 

ING 
NORFOLK -In a consent decree—a 

compromise—U1S. District Judge John A 
Mus Kenzie Thursday awarded $825,000 in 

ck pay to 209 black emploves or fe 
nee of Nortotk & Western Railway 
who were found to have been diseriminat- 

ed against by the railroad 
The railroad has agreed to put up the 

money. to pay attorney fees of the three 
plaintitts in the class action, and to raise 
the monthly pay of 70-10 80 black employes 
by $125 The latter will be retroactive to 
Feb | 

Tn exchange, the three plaintiffs agreed 
to drop their claims against the railroad. 

But they do not drop clams against the 
United Transportation Union and its Loval 
550. ‘That case 1s to go to trial June 7, said 
Wf Mason Jr an attorney for plaintiffs 
Robert Rock. Ezell B. Johnson, and Rus- 
sell Walker 

Johnson. #2 af the 1400 block of West 
auth Street was president of the local attilt- 
ate of the Brotherhood of Railroad Train- 
men when {he suit was brought nine years 
ago 

In an interview Thursday he said his 
men were generally satisfied with the set- 
tlement 

While we din’ got all that we asked 
tor and we didn { get all that we hoped to 
Ret at the sume time 1 think that it was 

4 Lan ettioment.” he suid 

Both the plaintiffs and the company 
sort al had to vive some Tt was a give-and. 
take altar and | thought that i) was nego: 
tiated well by our lawyers and 1 think the 
company met us over halfway 

We felt that this was best -t0 settle g 

BEZEL. JONSON 

“tairly good settlement” 

rather than go buck to court and fight 1 
for another five years or more.” he said 

The $425,080 represents hack pay claims 
tor the 200 We tieured it tre 

quested back pay» at $24 million, so you 
see it was a compromise.” Mason said 
Fhe compromise sum will average $3.4 
per member ot the class. although the 
amount will not be divided evenly 

The suit was filed J 
charged, among other th 

169 It 
gs. that N&W 

gregated work maintained ryerlly se 

Hee Buck-Pay Page BA 



January 23, 1979 

Oz Al Lewis 

FROM: Clyde Murphy 

RE: Contribution 

Attached please find a check for $100.00 representing 

a contribution to L.D.F. from Mrs. Eva Moore, mother of a 

deceased class member in Rock v. N. & W. Rwy. Co. 

cc: Jack Greenberg 

James M. Nabrit, III 

Coch Alea dy 
bea Byele lurgbs )