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Press Releases, Loose Pages. Los Angeles Church Gives $1,500 to NAACP Legal Fund, 1953. 3c09add2-bb92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/68f90172-029a-43b0-87e2-df05f228d8f9/los-angeles-church-gives-1-500-to-naacp-legal-fund. Accessed May 23, 2025.
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PRESS RELEASE NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 107 WEST 43 STREET *© NEW YORK 36, N. Y. ARTHUR B. SPINGARN President WALTER WHITE Secretary ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS Treasurer JUdson 6-8397 THURGOOD MARSHALL Director and Counsel ROBERT L. CARTER Assistant Counsel ARNOLD DE MILLE Press Relations FOR RELEASE: August 20, 1953 LOS ANGELES CHURCH GIVES $1,500 TO NAACP LEGAL FUND August 20, 1953 NEW YORK, Aug. 20.-- A contribution of $1,500 toward the expenses of the public school segregation cases has been received by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles, Calif., it was announced today by Thurgood Marshall, Fund director. The sum was raised by the Rev. J. Raymond Henderson, pastor of the Church, as an after-offering at a Sunday morning service. Rev. Henderson wrote: "It has given me great pleasure to do this and our Church deserves justifiable credit." He directed that all the money go to the "EE" (Educational Equality) Fund being raised by the Legal Defense Fund in cooperation with the Pittsburgh Courier and other newspapers. Rev. Henderson has long been a supporter of the NAACP during his years at the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in New York, his pastorate of the famed Wheat Street Baptist Church in ‘Atlanta, and his present post at the Great Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles. He is one of the leading candidates for the office of President of the Nation- al Baptist Convention at its meeting in Miami, Fla., in September. He and his Church were hosts to the 40th annual convention of the NAACP held in Los Angeles in 1949. Dr. E. I, Robinson, chairman of the Second Baptist Board of Trustees, is also Presi- dent of the Los Angeles Branch of the NAACP. "This is the largest contribution to these cases that has come from a local group anywhere in the Nation," Mr. Marshall said, “and when the great issue of public school segregation is finally decided by the Supreme Court, Rev. Henderson and the Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles will have the satisfaction of being in the forefront of those who made the fight possible. A large staff of lawyers and research workers has been at work right through the Summer on the material that must be submitted to the highest court before our oral argument now set for December 7. The fight is a costly one and we trust that the generous gift of the Second Baptist Church of Los Angeles will inspire other churches, organizations and individuals to send contributions. The entire race has a stake in these cases and if we win, the entire race wins."