Defense Fund Wins Victory for Crawfordville Negroes 1
Press Release
October 16, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Defense Fund Wins Victory for Crawfordville Negroes 1, 1965. d3e50d5f-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/cbac31c2-d1b8-4d79-8f34-242beec54d11/defense-fund-wins-victory-for-crawfordville-negroes-1. Accessed April 06, 2025.
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10 Columbus Circle New York, N.Y. 10019 JUdson 6-8397 Legal Defense and Educational Fund PRESS RELEASE President "Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Director-Counsel October L65 1965 Jack Greenberg DEFENSE FUND WINS VICTORY FOR CRAWFORDVILLE NEGROES Court Orders State to Resolve School Desegregation Issue AUGUSTA, GA.--A three-judge federal court here this week ordered the State Board of Education to resolve the school desegregation issue that has resulted in days of demonstrations in Crawfordville, Ga. The Taliaferro County School system, brovght before the court by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was placed in receivership, and the State Board of Education named receiver. The receivership or bankruptcy action, an oddity in cases of this type, places responsibility for directing the school system in the hands of the state board under the court's supervision. In New York, Jack Greenberg, Legal Defense Fund director- counsel, said the court's action "should be a signal to the country." "Tokenism and evasion in school desegregation are top items on the agenda of the Negro community," he said, "If school boards and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which must approve their plans, acquiesce in paper compliance, the Negro man in the street is going to protest loudly and vigorously and the courts are going to protect him and back him up in that protest.” "The only way to conclude the school desegregation problem is to conclude it swiftly and conclude it right," Mr. Greenberg added. Stephens Institute, the county's only white school, was closed prior to the school year rather than desegregate, White pupils had been bussed to schools in two adjoining counties. more Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 RIverside 9-8487 Ss DEFENSE FUND WINS VICTORY ‘ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR CRAWFORDVILLE NEGROES & 22 October 16, 1965 at The court's ruling affects 87 Negro children wh applied for transfer to Stephens before they learned of its cHeetne. Atty. Howard Moore, Jr. of Atlanta, one of the Legal Defense Fund lawyers who took the case before the tribunal, said the state boatd's alternatives will be to allow the Negro children to be bussed to other counties as are the whites, or to reopen Stephens Institute. The court gave the state board until Oct. 25 to report what course it will take. The court also granted a Legal Defense Fund motion to enjoin prosecution of several Negro and white civil rights activists whO were arrested during recent protest demonstrations in Crawfordville. Legal Defense Fund lawyers contend that the arrests were designed as harassment for civil rights activities, Crawfordville Negroes agreed to suspend demonstrations until the issue of desegregated education for Negro children is resolved. = 30;=