NAACP Files Federal Class Action Suit to Halt Hospital Closings - Charges Mayor with Attempt to Drive Poor from City

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NATIONAL ASSO: !ATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORFI (FORLE 

250 WEST 5/1) STREET. SUITE 214, NEW YORK. NY 10019 4 i 

CONTACT: David E, Bryan, Jr. 
Executive Secretary 

FOR RELEASE: 1'PON RECEIPT is aaoeaky EES 

NAACP FILES FEDERAL CLASS ACTION SUIT TO HALT HOSPITAL CLOSINGS; 

CHARGES MAYOR WITH ATTEMPT TO DRIVE POOR FROM CIT" 

This press conference has been called to announce that the New York City Metropolitan 

Council of the New York State Conference of Branches of the National Association for 

the Advancement of Colored People this morning caused to be filed a class action in 

the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking injunc- 

tive and declaratory relief against Edward Koch, the Mayor of the City of New York; 

Haskel Ward, Chairman, New York City Health and Hospital Corporation and the New York 

State Department of Health, charging that their actions, including but not limited to 

the reduction of medical services, budgetary cutbacks, attrition, closings and 

mergers of municipal hospitals in the City of New York, unconst itutionally discrimin- 

ates against black and hispanic people of this city in violation of the Fourteenth 

Amendment of the Constitution of the United States; Title VI of the Civil Rights Act 

o£ 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Further, that the city in attempting to 

achieve these discriminatory actions did unconstitutionally violate the due process 

rights of black and hispanic citizens of this city guaranteed under the Constitution 

of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the State of New York. 

This lawsuit seeks to prohibit the Mayor, City and State health officials from imple- 

menting any plans to close municipal hospitals or reduce medical services unless and 

until black and hispanic residents have the same access to adequate health care as 

white residents. 

It is clear to us that the Mayor has embarked upon a conscious and deliberate policy 

of urban removal of the poor in this city through the curtailment o = delivery of 

vital medical services to a segment of the population most in need of them. 

This Mayor and city have used the cloak of fiscal responsibility to justify the 

abandonment of their social and moral responsibility to the poor. A city which 

abandons the legitimateneeds and aspirations of its poor, as this one is attempting 

to do, is a city which is about to become ethically and morally bankrupt. 

In causing this suit to be brought, the NAACP is putting the Mayor and city officials 

on notice that we will challenge any official, any program, any policy which attempts 

to deny its black and poor citizens of these rights to which they are legally and 

morally entitled. In this case, the right to adequate health care is one of those 

such rights. 

We will not permit this city to drive out its black and poor citizens under any 

circumstances in order to achieve what New York Magazine called: "Future City - 

White, Wealthy and Walled In." 

The Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York and 

the Charter of the City of New York mandate that those who are given the privilege 

to govern provide for the good and welfare of all its citizens, regardless of race 

or socio-economic condition. Anything less is totally unacceptable. 

The plaintiffs in this lawsuit are being represented by Beth J. Lief, Esq., 

Peter Sherwood, Esq. attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Ira S. Bezoza, 

Community Action for Legal Services.