Rights Lawyer Calls for HEW Action Against Biased Professional Groups

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NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

President FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Friday, 

el January 21, 1966 
reenberg 

Director-C 
Jack 

RIGHTS LAWYER CALLS FOR HEW ACTION 
AGAINST BIASED PROFESSIONAL GROUPS 

Court Orders Admission of Negro to N.C. Dental Society 

NEW YORK---Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., today called for the 

withholding of Federal funds from national, state and local medical 

and dental organizations because of racial discrimination in 

southern medical and dental societies. 

In a telegram to John W. Gardner, secretary of Health, 

Education and Welfare, Mr. Greenberg charged that hundreds of 

medical and dental societies throughout the South exclude Negroes. 

HEW has the authority under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act 

of 1964 to withhold funds from agencies practicing discrimination, 

The telegram followed a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling 

Thursday ordering the admission of a Negro dentist to the North 

Carolina Dental Society. 

The dentist, Dr. Reginald C. Hawkins of Charlotte, through the 

Legal Defense Fund, began court action to gain admission to the 

society in 1960. The case had been pending in the appellate court 

for more than 14 months prior to Thursday's decision. 

The same appellate court in 1963 gave the Legal Defense Fund 

its first victory over hospital segregation when it ruled that 

hospitals receiving Federal funds under the Hi11-Rueon Act could 

not discriminate. The ruling was subsequently upheld by the U. S. 

Supreme Court. 

No Negroes had previously been admitted to the North Carolina 

Dental Society, and a recent report by the Medical Committee for 

Human Rights said only three Negroes had been admitted to local 

medical societies in North Carolina. 

(more) 

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



Rights Lawyer Calls for HEW Action -2- January 21, 1966 
Against Biased Professional Groups 

The Circuit Court held that state and local dental societies, 

although private organizations, are closely involved in 

governmental affairs, and hence are prohibited by the 14th Amend= 

ment from practicing discrimination. 

The ruling came despite repeal by the North Carolina Legis- 

lature of several statutes which involved the dental sockety. Aa 

state government, including one which gave the society power to 

nominate candidates for the State Board of Dental Examiners which 

regulates the practice of dentistry in the state. 

The Legal Defense Fund won a similar ruling in January, 1964, 

when a Federal District Court in Georgia held that professional 

societies which participate in the selection of state officials 

may not discriminate, 

The Georeia court reaffirmed its decision last week after 

discovering that the local. society had not complied with its 

original order. 

However, a HEW spokesman said today that less than 70 Negro 

dentists are presently members of dental societies in southern 

states. 

HEW has granted $700,000 to the American Dental Association, 

parent body of the state societies, for research and training in 

the present fiscal year. 

Similarly, the Medical Committee for Human Rights report 

said that most medical societies in the South deny membership to 

Negro physicians.