By Dr. George D. Flemmings Nationa President Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

    PRESS RELEASE® a 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET + NEW YORK 36, N. Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

ARTHUR B. SPINGARN ose THURGOOD MARSHALL 5 ‘¢ Director and Counsel President 

ROBERT L. CARTER 
ROY WILKINS Assistant Counsel Secretary 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD de MILLE 
Press Relations Treasurer 

FOR RELEASE: Upon receipt December 1h, 1955 

NOTE TO EDITOR: This is another in a series of articles 
written by outstanding leaders in American 
life supporting the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, Inc. in its efforts to 
obtain through the courts full citizenship 
and "equal justice under law" for all Negro 
Americans. 

DR. eed 3. FLEMMINGS 
National President 

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. 

People throughout the world know that on May 17, 1954 the Supreme 

Court declared that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, 

Then on May 31, 1955, the Court further stated that all school dis- 

tricts must integrate public schools as soon as feasible. 

To the NAACP Legal Defense Fund which spearheaded the fight, this 

was a momentous victory. 

The cases were won, but the fight has not been won, and will not 

be won as long as Negroes and other minority groups are discriminated 

against in any phase of our democratic structure. 

Intense and arduous labor on the part of the NAACP Legal Defense 

Fund has brought us far along the path of eliminating second-class 

citizenship. History and current events have demonstrated beyond ques- 

tion that the patriotic work of the organization is bringing the actions 

of this nation into conformity with its preachment and ereat historical 

documents of freedom and equality. It is giving greater stature to our 

nation and enhancing it as a moral force in international affairs, 

Legal victories, vast in their scope, have enabled us to envision suc- 

cess in our strucgle to be free by '63. 

In 1939 the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. was 

formed and incorporated. Its purposes were to render free legal aid to 

Negroes who suffer legal injustice because of their race or color and 

cannot afford to employ legal assistance; to seek and promote educa- 

tional opportunities denied to Negroes because of their race or color; 



ef s @ 
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to conduct research and publish information on educational facilities 

and inequalities furnished for Negroes out of public fundss 

The many victories the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has won to ensure 

first-class citizenship for the minority race is, in a very large 

measure, due to the efforts and contributions you, Mr. Average Citizen, 

have made to the Fund. But despite these victories there remains many 

years of intensive toil and labor, together with financial sacrifice. 

We shall meet these challenges with determination tempered and forti- 

fied with the knowledge that our cause is just and our methods legal 

and our devotion unwielding. 

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund assures any individual or group that 

every action in every sphere of human endeavor to eliminate every mani- 

festation of inequality based on race shall be meted out. It will work 

untiringly to eliminate job discrimination -- the right to work is the 

basic to man's existence. 

First on the must list on the Civil Rights Program of the NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund is getting Congress to pass Fair Employment Practice 

Act -- with full enforcement powers. Your contribution to the NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund now means a guarantee for the right to vote -- every- 

one must have an equal right to vote if America is to be free. The 

free ballot is the cornerstone of democracy. 

Ask yourself a few pertinent questions. Are Negroes safer today 

from lynching than even a few years ago? Can Negroes live in better 

neighborhoods today than they could a few years ago? Are our teachers 

and children being given better advantages for equalization of educa- 

tional opportunities and better pay than ever before in the history of 

the world? Can Negroes today be served on dining cars where and when 

ever their appetites call for food without being humiliated or embar- 

passed to be seated behind a drawn curtain or in a cage separate and 

apart from the passengers of other racial groups? Can Negroes travel 

from one state to another in the Deep South without being forced to 

sit in a Jim Crow car? Can Negroes attend universities and colleges 

throughout the south today on the same bases as any other student, 

regardless of race or creed? 

The answer to all of these questions and a thousand or more others 

is YES.... and the organization which led the fight is the NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund. It has fought brains with breins, law 



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with law; it has harnessed the hearts, minds and hands of whites and 

Negroes into working for first-class citizenship for Negro Americans, 

and for the promotion of democracy. If the United States of America 

looks a little brighter and better before the world today, it is be- 

cause the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has won through the courts and 

forced the changes which now are taken for granted as a pert of the 

democratic American way of life. 

But gains and advancements do not last forever. Freedom is never 

free. Must be fought for over and over again. He who wins today may 

lose tomorrow, unless eternal vigilance is exercised. It is our duty 

to keep the Legal Defense Fund strong. 

Your contribution can secure its strength and help hold the gains 

made. The support from all liberal people means the necessary finan- 

cial strength. As you know, it takes money to hire lawyers, prepare 

cases for the Supreme Court, and conduct the educational programs which 

bring about changes and improvement in our status. 

Your contribution at this time is needed as an investment in our 

all-out struggle for complete democracy. With your help we cen make 

the final push now, or we shall stand at a later date once again 

We must work together as never before, so as to enable the NAACP 

Legal Defense Fund to achieve its objectives -- a great moral force 

which duty is to safeguard and promote the moral welfare and the 

political liberty of all Americans, Never in the history of the world 

has an organization done so much, with so little, for so many people 

as that of NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 

Dontt be a parasite. Do your part for freedom now. Make your 

contribution today to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 

107 West 43rd Street, New York 36, N. Y. 

Oe 

[Editor's Note: Contributions to NAACP Legal Defense and “ducational 
Fund can be deducted from your income tax.