North Carolina Negro Dentists Seek Professional Recognition

Press Release
October 31, 1964

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Press Releases, Volume 1. North Carolina Negro Dentists Seek Professional Recognition, 1964. bbb57e60-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e01f0311-3569-4cb3-925a-ff01cd6a1696/north-carolina-negro-dentists-seek-professional-recognition. Accessed January 07, 2026.

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    10 Columbus Circle 

4 New York, N.Y. 10019 
) JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
President 

r. Allan Knight Chalmers 

Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg 1964 
Associate Counsel 

Constance Baker Motley 

NORTH CAROLINA NEGRO DENTS: S 
SEEK PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION 

# 
‘a NAACP Legal Defense Fund Ue Gace 

‘ eae 

RICHVOND, Va.--A Negro dentist, with assistance of the NAACP 
Legal Defense Fund, this week asked the U.S. Court of Appeals here 
to strike down discriminatory policies of the North Carolina 
Dental Society. 

Acting in behalf of Dr. Reginald A. Hawkins, Legal Défense 
Fund attorneys told the appeals court that the "numerous activities 
of the North Carolina Dental Society make it the dominant force in 
regulating dentistry" in the state. 

Exclusion of Negroes from the 1214 member North Carolina 
Dental Society, Legal Defense Fund lawyers argue, means that! 

* Negro dentists cannot effectively participate in selection 
of members to the State Board of Dental Examiners which 
regulates the practice of dentistry in North Carolina. 

* A Negro dentist cannot sit on the North Carolina Medical 
Care Commission which coordinates all federal monies ear- 
marked for hospital construction in the state; nor can he 
influence selection of Commission members. 

* Negro dentists do not belong to the North Carolina Mental 
Health Council, which directs all mental institutions within 
the state, 

In addition, the Legal Defense Fund attorneys point out, the 
North Carolina Dental Society performs other services for the state 
and federal governments. 

The Society's "Advisory Committee to the University of North 
Carolina is working toward the establishment of a federally assisted 

research center at the University. 

"The Hospital Services Committee inspects hospitals to 
determine whether their facilities qualify them for the teaching of 

dentists. 

™ "The State Institutions Committee inspects the dental care 
faéilities of mental hospitals and schools of correction." 

tee Legal Defense Fund attorneys stress that the Society, along 
with the State Board of Dental Examiners, performs the task of 

* regulating the “public health, safety and welfare". 

“And, the state's 100 Negro dentists are excluded, 

Although registered as a private agency, the Society's 
importance "is no less than would be a formal state agency's per=- 
forming the same duties," the lawyers argue, 

Sey 
Dr Hawkins, who first filed his suit in 1960, received a 

degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery from Howard University and went 
on to serve as a dentist and commissioned officer in the U.S. Army. 

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



Bs 
North.Carolina Negro Dentists ee October 31, 1964 
Seek Professional Recognition 

KS J 

He has practiced dentistry in Charlotte since 1948. Dr. 
Hawkins and his wife, the former Catherine Richardson, have four 
children, He also holds a Bachelor of Divinity Degree and is an 

“~ ordained clergyman, 7 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys include Jack Greenberg and 
Frank Heffron of New York City and Thomas H. Wyche of Charlotte. 

=30- 

é

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North Carolina Negro Dentists Seek Professional Recognition

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