Burns Statement on School Lunch Program; Greenberg Statement on LDF to Challenge Racial Designations in Southern Newspaper Advertisements

    low 
President 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 

egal efense lund Jack Greenberg 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Dic ectety FADES Rela ane 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 Jesse DeVere, Jr: NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

Statement by Haywood Burns, Assistant Counsel, 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

at the Hotel Willard, Washington, D. C. 

April 16, 1968 -- 12:00 noon 

We today announce a legal program in conjunction with the 

release of the findings of the Committee on School Lunch Participa- 

tion. This program has been Gesigned and will be implemented by 

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

which seeks to translate these significant findings into day-to-day 

meaning in the lives of the nation's children. 

This program will follow a three-part approach--federal, state, 

and local. 

LDF attorneys will consider a suit against Secretary Orville L. 

Freeman of the Department of Agriculture seeking to establish defini- 

tions and guidelines for implementation of the National School Lunch 

Act. 

This unprecedented suit will seek: 

1) a review of the Secretary's determination to continue chan- 

neling funds when and where local authorities violate the statute; 

2) to have the Secretary develop specific regulations and 

standards for determining eligibility for free and reduced-price 

lunches; and 

3) to require every school servicing poor people to institute 

a free lunch program. 

This will attempt to establish uniformity of standards with a 

view toward eradicating arbitrary determinations on the local level 

and securing for every hungry poor child his rights under the statute. 

We will also be concerned with operations of the program on the 

state and local level. 

One of the recuirements under the Act is that a participating 

school must agree to supply lunches to poor children at free or 

reduced prices. (See Report, p. 8.) 

Yet, as the report demonstrates, there are millions of children 

in schools with school lunch programs who go hungry every day simply 

because they are too poor to buy lunch at the price the school 

authorities have set. 

A large part of this program rests with local school officials 

who have been delegated the power to determine which individual chil- 

dren are unable to pay and, therefore, theoretically entitled to free 

or reduced-price lunches. 

These officials often make no determination as to eligibility of 

individual children, or they make decisions in an arbitrary or capri- 

cious fashion since there are ‘no guidélines. 

We are filing strategic suits to correct this abuse. 

In addition, in schools where there are large numbers of chil- 

dren who go without lunch regularly, LDF attorneys will bring a 

series of class actions under the equal protection clause of the 

Federal Constitution to force state and local officials: 

1) to determine who is unable to pay; 

5 



Statement by Haywood Burns, Asst. Counsel, 

NAACP Légal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. -2- 

2) for a declaration that they are unable to pay; and 

3) for an order that they be provided lunches free or at a 

price the children could afford. 

The state does not have to participate in the School Lunch 

Program. However, once it does, it cannot withhold the benefits of 

the program from students of some schools while providing them for 

students of cther schools. 

In many states throughout the nation, some schools are not 

getting the School Lunch Program because the state and/or local 

authorities have determined that the children in these schools are 

too poor to support the program or that the local school is too poor 

to provide the facilities to carry out the program. 

It is this disparity in the dispensation of benefits under the 

program that will be the focus of the legal attack by the LDF. 

=30= 



a 10% 
President 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers 
PRESS RELEASE Director Counsel egal fefense und Jack Greenberg 
FOR RELEASE Director, te NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC.  muBSpAY c eaee DEW Esce 

10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 April 30, 1968 nigHt NuMBER 212-749-8487 

Statement by Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel, 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 
10 Columbus Circle, New York City, Apr.29, 11 a.m. 

LDF TO CHALLENGE RACIAL DESIGNATIONS 
IN SOUTHERN NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS 

NEW YORK---The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) 
announces today that it has sent telegrams to 14 publishers of southern 
newspapers calling attention to the fact that they continue to run 
racial designations in their housing advertisements and that this is in 
violation of the 1968 Civil Rights Act, which subjects these publishers 
to suit for such advertising. 

Fifteen attorneys from key northern and southern states are con- 
ferring in this office today on this housing issue and other housing 
discrimination which the LDF attorneys will move to combat under the 
fFecently passed Fair Housing Act of 1968. 

This is the first such campaign under the new Act. 

LDF attorneys are proceeding under §804 of the new Act. In our 
wire to the southern publishers, we said: 

“The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibits publication 
of advertisements indicating racial discrimination and 
preferences in the sales and rentals of houses. This 
provision became effective April 11, 1968. We note that 
your newspaper continues to publish housing advertisements 
containing racial preferences. We call upon you to obey 
the new federal law and to announce your intention to 
comply forthwith. Such violations of the Act may be 
enforced by suits for damages or injunctions in state 
or federal courts by private parties or by the Attorney 
General of the United States. We would appreciate a 
response indicating your plans." 

The LDF pledges that, through its New York staff, assisted by 250 
cooperating attorneys, it will sue for any violations of the Civil 
Rights Act of 1968 brought to its attorneys. 

The new Housing Act says that it is unlawful: 

(a) To refuse to sell or rent after the making of a bona 
fide offer or to refuse to negotiate for the sale or 
rental of, or otherwise make unavailable or deny, a 
dwelling to any person because of race, color, re- 
ligion, or national origin. 

(b) To discriminate against any person in the terms, 
conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a 
dwelling, or in the provision of services or 
facilities in connection therewith, because of 
race, color, religion, or national origin. 

(c) To make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, 
printed, or published any notice, statement, or 
advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental 
of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limi- 
tation, or discrimination based on race, color, 
religion, or national origin, or an intention to 
make any such preference, limitation, or discrimi- 
nation. 

(more) 

E25 



LDF TO CHALLENGE RACIAL DESIGNATIONS =-2- April 30, 
IN SOUTHERN NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS 

(a) To represent to any person because of race, color, 

religion, or national origin that any dwelling is 
not available for inspection, sale or rental when 
such dwelling is in fact so available. 

The LDF wire was sent to the following publications: 

Among the LDF 

NOTE: The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is a 

separate and distinct organization from the NAACP. 

designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., which 

MOBILE, ALA. REGISTER 
MONTGOMERY, ALA. ADVERTISER 
AUGUSTA, GA. CHRONICLE 
ALBANY, GA. HERALD 
SAVANNAH NEWS 
STATE-TIMES (Baton Rouge) 
TIMES-PICAYUNE (New Orieans) 
STATES-ITEM (New Orleans) 
CLARION LEDGER (Jackson) 
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER 
WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL 
GREENVILLE NEWS (S.C.) 
BEAUMONT ENTERPRISE 
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH. 

attorneys in New York City today are: 

Gilbert A. Cornfield, Chicago 
Howard Moore, Jr., Atlanta 
Norman Johnson, New York 
Ernest N. Morial, New Orleans 
Henry L. Marsh III, Richmond 
Julius L. Chambers, Charlotte 
James H. Harvey, Philadelphia 
Avon N. Williams, Jr., Nashville 
Richard L. Banks, Boston 
Russell B. Sugamon, Jr., Memphis 
Fred B. Gray, Montgomery. 

-30- 

is shortened to LDF. 

1968 

Its correct