Civil Rights Attorneys Ask Protection of Negro Nurses

    New York, 
JUdson 6-8397 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

opr. Atlan Knight Chalmers 
Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg 
FOR RELEASE 

Wednesday, 
November 24, 1965 

CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEYS ASK 
PROTECTION OF NEGRO NURSES 

RICHMOND, VA.--The U.S. Court of Appeals was asked to decide today 
if Negro nurses are protected by the Constitution with regard to 
racial discrimination at hospitals receiving Federal monies under 
the Hill-Burton Act. 

Attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
are asking that three Negro nurses, fired two years ago for eating in 
the “white” cafeteria of Dixie Hospital, Hampton, Nece be reinstated. 

The attorneys argue. that Dixie Hospital “received Federal funds 
in 1956, seven years before the racial discharge" after promising 
that it would not "discriminate on basis of race, creed or color." 

Negro nurses across the South generally work for less money 
than their white counterparts; are given separate facilities; 
assigned the ss desirable work; and, are confined to Negro wards, 
for the most part. 

The nurses in this case, Mildred Smith, Agnes L. Stokes and 
Patricia L, Tay or were among Dixie Hosp. its Negro employees 
forced to ¢ in a converted classroom, while white employees used 
a new cafeteri . 

"In order to dine in this room (classroom) Negro employees had 
to telephone their orders for food service to the cafeteria and wait 
until the food was delivered.... 

"This procedure resulted in cold food and delays which 
exhausted the 30-minute lunch period.” 

Nurse Smith explained that the classroom seated 35 persons, 
but because there are “over 100 Negro personnel who must cat there, 
the room is frequently crowded and persons must wait their turn for 
available chairs. 

"This, combined with the necessity of leaving the main cafeteria 
and walking to the small room, necessitates rushing our Weeds. 

"In addition, Nurse Smith asserts, "the humiliation we ex- 
perience when we see white persons, some of them maintenance 
personnel in dirty working clothes, seated in the main cafeteria, 
while we ar e forced to leave, because of our color, is impossible 
to explain.’ 

The three nurses involved in the suit decided to eat in the 
"white" cafeteria on August Sth and August 9th. They were fired on 
the 9th. 

The Legal Defense Fund brief notes that Dixie Hospital is 
currently awaiting action on Federal application for an additional 
$585,000 for new construction. 

However, according to the Department of Health, Education 
and Welfare, as of July 13, 1965, "the hospital is not in 
compliance with Title VI, particularly in the areas of patient oe 
assignment to rooms and the use of separate admission lists for 
Negro and white patients," 

Dixie Hospital received.a«Pederal grant of $1,730,000 in 
1956 for construction purposes, and has received substantial amounts 
since, 

e306 

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