Memo on Suit to Desegregate Cafeteria in Ark. Capitol Building

Press Release
March 31, 1965

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Memo on Suit to Desegregate Cafeteria in Ark. Capitol Building preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 2. Memo on Suit to Desegregate Cafeteria in Ark. Capitol Building, 1965. e26448d4-b592-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e2f4956f-33aa-4492-9df1-55353cc7603c/memo-on-suit-to-desegregate-cafeteria-in-ark-capitol-building. Accessed December 04, 2025.

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    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 ab} 
JUdson 6-8397 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
Presiden ident 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers 

Director-Counsel 
5 Jack Greenberg March 31, 1965 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: SELECTED EDITORS 

% Suit to desegregate cafeteria in Arkansas State Capitol 
| building. 

. Federal District Judge J, Smith Henley will try this case on 

Ftursday, April 1 in Little Rock. NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys 

Michael Meltsner and John W, Walker (Mr. Walker is from Arkansas) 

of New York and Harold B. Anderson of Little Rock are counsel for 

the plaintiffs. 

The attorneys will argue that the state is so involved in the 

operation of the cafeteria that the exclusion of Negroes violates 

the 14th Amendment and that the cafeteria, known since July 22, 1964 

as the Capitol Club, does not fit the definition of a club under 

the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

: The Fund attorneys contend that the state is involved because: 

1. The state leased the cafeteria to its manager, Mrs. 

S. E. Tyler. 

: 2. The state allowed the manager to revoke the lease 

and allowed new lessors to operate it under a differ 

4 ent name. 

| 3. The officers of the club are all state officials. 

4. The attorney for the club is the Assistant State 

% Attorney General. 

: 5. The Governor of the state closed the club, so that 

it was not opened for business on March 22. 

The lawyers argue that the cafeteria is not a bona fide club 

because: 
J 

ee 1, Use is extended to all whites, not just those who 

meet the membership requirement. 

(more) 

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



MEMORANDUM March 31, 1965 

2. While there may be a few Negro members, they have no 

. evidence that these members ever used the facilities. 

3. State-employed guides in the capitol building were 

instructed to bring any white tourists who desired 

to eat into the club as guests. 

4, There are no benefits of membership that the State 

¥ “Capito employees did not enjoy before the July 

Weonversion of the cafeteria, 

The Legal Defense Fund attorneys may be reached in Little Rock 

at the Hotel Sam Peck or at the office of Mr. Anderson, 

S01-FR 2-4905, z x a 

-30- 

$, 
IS « 

*The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is not to be confused with the NAACP, 
which established the Fund as a separate organization in 1939,

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© NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

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