Memorandum on Eilers v. Eilers Anderson Case

Document text

The following text has been generated automatically during the document scanning process. It may contain errors, omissions, or incorrect formatting. Please refer to the PDF document if this text is not usable.

Download

By downloading, publishing, or reusing the Materials outside of the Website, you hereby confirm and attest that you have read and agree to the LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use linked below. We draw your attention to the following:

For those Materials owned by LDF, your use of the Material outside the Site is solely for one or more of the following (the “Permitted Purposes”):

Non-commercial research and private study;
Teaching, scholarship and instruction (including distance learning);
Non-commercial print and non-commercial online use;
Criticism, comment or news reporting; or
For people with visual disabilities (See Section 121 of the Copyright Act).
For those Materials not owned by LDF you understand that:
- It is your responsibility to determine whether the way you plan to use the materials falls within the copyright exception of Fair Use.
- For any use outside of Fair Use, it is your responsibility to seek and obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders.

LDF hereby grants you the right to use LDF owned Materials for the Permitted Purposes without seeking further permission from LDF.

If you publish or redistribute any Materials (including excerpts and quotes), you must include a credit line and/or proper citation to the source of the Material. However, you may not use the name of LDF in any manner which creates any false association between you and LDF or that incorrectly implies any sponsorship or endorsement of you by LDF.

NOTICE: Uses that do not comply with these Terms or that do not fall under Fair Use (or another exception) may make you liable for copyright infringement.

Read the full LDF Archival Collection Terms of Use Here.

I agree to the terms and conditions for use of this content.

If you would like to use this content in other ways, contact us at .

Collection
- Press Releases
Creator
- LDF
Taxonomy
Identifier
- d3674dde-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

Cite this item

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 December 04, 2025.

Copied!

    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

Copyright notice

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.

Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Memorandum on Eilers v. Eilers Anderson Case

Collection

Creator

Taxonomy

Identifier

Cite this item

Copyright notice

Additional info

You may also be interested in