Consultants to Aid Desegregation Programs

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CONSULTANTS TO AID DESEGREGATION PROGRAMS 

NOTE: RELEASE DATE: January 17, 1955 a.m. 

NEW YORK.--In an effort to assist Southern states in the change 

over from sogregated to non-segregated schools, NAACP Legal Defense and 

Educational Fund has established a new Social Science Department, 

Thurgood Marshall, Director-Counsel of Legal Defense announced today, 

The new Department, Mr. Marshall said, will make available to edu- 

cators, school officials and civic organizations, findings and materials 

of social science which will aid desegregation programs, 

The new Department is made possible by an $8,000.00 grant from the 

Prince Hall Masons, Mr. Marshall disclosed, The Masons, during the 

past three years, have contributed more than $6,000.00 to underwrite 

legal research which was an important factor in the preparation of tho 

cases presented before the Supreme Court, he said, 

The work of the Social Science Department will be guided by a Com- 

mittee of Consultants consisting of many of the nation's leading social 

scientists, and headed by Dr, Alfred McClung Lee, Chairman, Sociology 

Department, Brooklyn College, Mr. Marshall added, 

Serving with Prof, Lee on the Committce of Consultants which will 

direct the Department, are 43 sociologists, anthropologists, cconomists, 

historians, theologians, and educators on the faculties and staffs of 

28 universities, colleges, research institutions and governmental com- 

missions. Located in 18 states and the District of Columbia, the social 

scientists' panel includes men and women working in such southern states 

as Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, as well as 

border states like Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and 

Pennsylvania where in some areas segregated public school still persists, 

Mr. Marshall stated that Legal Defense's former field secretary, 

June Shagaloff, has been appointed executive secretary of the Social 

Science Department, 

The findings of some of the social scientists on the panel were 

cited by Chief Justice Earl Warren in reading the Court's unanimous 

opinion outlawing segregation in public and elementary schools, the 

Director=Counsel of Logal Defense asserted, "Many of these social scien- 

tists have also assisted NAACP attorneys in recent years by testifying 

to the affects of segregation on the development of Negro and white 

children, in court arguments and the preparation of the briefs for the 

Supreme Court arguments," 



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"During the initial period of school desegregation last fall, mem- 

bers of the social scientists committee served as observers in areas 

where disturbances developed including White Sulphur Spring, West 

Virginia; Milford, Delaware; Baltimore and Washington," Mr. Marshall said, 

"It is our hope that long-standing prejudices, misconceptions and 

fears can be overcome," Mr, Marshall and Professor Lee in a joint state- 

ment said, "Through understanding work with the positive elements to 

be found among the Negro and white populations of every community, North 

and South, great gains can be made," 

"A groat victory for human rights has been won in the court," they 

declared, "We hope tmt the broad implications of the Supreme Court's 

ruling can be realized throughout our land through mutual understanding 

among people, and without recourse to the courts. When necessary, legal 

action will continue to be taken, but the new Department of Social 

Science, under the direction of the Committee of Consultants, will pro- 

vide us with tools to assure the rights of Negro children through 

cooperative efforts." 

Members of the Committee of Consultants are: 

James Luther Adams, Meadville Theological School 
Gordon W. Allport, Harvard University 
Herbert Blumer, University of California 
Samuel W. Blizzard, Union Theological Seminary 
Isadore Chein, New York University 
Martin P, Chworowsky, University of Pennsylvania 
Carroll D. Clark, University of Kansas 
Kenneth B, Clark, City College of New York 
Stuart W, Cook, Head, Graduate Psychology Department, New York 

University 
Bingham Dai, Duke University 
John A, Davis, City College of New York 
John P. Dean, Cornell University 
Dan W. Dodson, Research Center for Human Rolations, New York Univorsity 
Winston W. Ehrmann, University of Florida, Gainesville 
Mabel A, Elliott, Chairman, Department of Sociology, Pennsylvania 

College for Women 
E. Franklin Frazier, Head, Department of Sociology, Howard University 
Else Frenkel-Brunswik, University of California 
Noel P, Gist, University of Missouri 
Earl G, Harrison, Former Dean, University of Pennsylvania Law School 
Floyd N. House, University of Virginia 
Louisa Howe, Berkeley, California 
Charles S. Johnson, President, Fisk University 
Kenneth D, Johnson, Dean, New York School of Social Work, Columbia 

University 
John J. Kane, Department of Sociology, Notre Dame University 
Alfred H, Kelly, Wayne University 
Eugene P, Link, Chairman, Department of Social Science, University of 

the State of New York, Platz 
Ernest Manheim, Kansas City University 
Robert Merton, Columbia University 
J. Kenneth Morland, Chairman, Department of Economics and Sociology, 

Randolph-Macon Women's College 
Gardner Murphy, Director of Research, Menninger Foundation 
Theodore M, Newcomb, University of Michigan 
Frederick B, Parker, Chairman, Department of Sociology, University of 

Delaware 



erford College 
Head, Department of Sociology, Virginia State College 

Arnold M. Ro. University of Minnesota 
S$. Stansfeld Sargent, Columbia University 
George Schermer, Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations 
Charles H, Thompson, Dean, Graduate School, Howard University 
Whitney M. Young, Jr., Dean, School of Social Work, Atlanta University 
Carolyn Zeleny, Wilson College 

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CONNECTICUT HOUSING BIAS IN SUPREME COURT 

HARTFORD, CONN.--The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors was asked 

last week to reverse a lower court's decision which denied a Negro 

couple the right to take possession of a lot in West Haven, Conn, 

The couple Mr, & Mrs, William Harris of New Haven, Conn,., bought 

the contract rights of Peter Horbick, white, who had entered into a 

written contract with the owners of the lot, Mr, & Mrs, Samuel Clinton 

also of New Haven, 

Clinton, a real estate operator, had sold the lot on contract to 

Horbick, a stone mason, in the ordinary course of business and using 

the usual form of agreement. Horbick had planned to build a house of 

stone on the lot but later changed his mind, He was buying the lot on 

the installment plan and had asked and gotten permission of the Clintons 

to sell his interest. However, when Horbick advised Clinton he was 

selling to a Negro couple, Clinton objected and refused to relinquish 

the title to the lot to the Negro couple, although the balance of the 

contracted amount was offered. 

The Negro couple brought suit against the Clintons, but the court 

upheld the action of the white owners on the ground that they proved to 

the satisfaction of the jury that they had an oral agreement with 

Horbick prohibiting him from selling his interest to anyone without 

first securing their consent and approval. 

On appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors in 1952 the 

lower court's opinion was reversed and sent back to the first court 

for a new trial. 

In taking the case back to the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, 

Ralph Lockwood of Bridgeport and Mrs, Constance Baker Motley of NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund staff, attorneys for the Harris’, 

charged that the lower court was in error in handing down an opinion 

which denicd the Harris! the right to acquire title to the property. 



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The judgment of the lower court violates the Harris' constitu- 

tional right, the attorneys declared, because the refusal on the part 

of the Clintons to relinquish the title of the property was based 

solely on the fact that the Harris' are Negroes. 

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