Suits Filed in North Carolina to End School, Restaurant Bias

Press Release
December 15, 1964

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Press Releases, Volume 2. Suits Filed in North Carolina to End School, Restaurant Bias, 1964. 67d79a7e-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/d08370d3-9024-44bc-b843-a0607714a8f0/suits-filed-in-north-carolina-to-end-school-restaurant-bias. Accessed June 01, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 

\6 JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 

President FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Tuesday 
Director-Colinsel December 15, 1964 

Jack Greenberg 
Associate Counsel 

Constance Baker Motley 

SUITS FILED IN NORTH CAROLINA 
TO END SCHOOL, RESTAURANT BIAS 

Legal Defense Fund Presses for Rights Act Compliance 

CHARLOTTE, N.C.---The legal fight for racial equality in North 

Carolina feceived another boost this week as NAACP Legal Defense 

Fund lawyers brought actions to desegregate the school system of 

Craven County and to compel a Lillington restaurateur to open his 

facilities to all. 

Acting on behalf of 91 Craven County youngsters, the Legal 

Defense Fund asked the Federal District Court in New Bern to order 

school desegregation. 

According to Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg of the Legal 

Defense Fund, 91 is an unusually high number of plaintiffs in a 

school integregation suit. 

Following two unsuccessful attempts by Negro parents in Craven 

County to secure the school board's voluntary compliance with the 

1954 Supreme Court Decision, legal assistance was requested, 

Craven County thus becomes the 19th North Carolina community in 

which the Legal Defense Fund seeks equal educational opportunities 

for Negroes. 

The Legal Defense Fund complaint asks the court to end dual 

school zones, pupil assignments based on race, teacher hiring and 

assignments based on race, and further school construction designed 

to perpetuate a segregated educational system. 

In a suit to enforce the Public Accommodations section of the 

1964 Civil Rights Act, Legal Defense Fund lawyers asked the Federal 

Court in Raleigh to order the opening of Wade's Restaurant in 

Lillington to Negroes. The restaurant is situated on Interstate 

Highway 401. 
In their complaint, the ‘Rights attorneys charged that on 

November 9, Rev. B.B. Felder, Cornelius Leak, and Sarah M. McLean 

were denied service in the main portion of the restaurant. They 

were told they could only be served in the back section of the 

establishment, reserved for Negroes. 
NAACP Legal’ DefensevFund attorneys in the two suits are Mr. 

Greenberg, Derrick Bell, and Michael Meltsner of New York; Conrad O, 

Pearson and W.G. Pearson II of Durham; Reginald L. Frazier of New 

Bern; and J. LeVonne Chambers of Charlotte. 
-30- 

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

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Suits Filed in North Carolina to End School, Restaurant Bias

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