Ask Halt of Federal Cash to Tennessee Urban Renewal Project

    President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 
egal efense lund Jack Greenberg 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Sages 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 etna . eres 

FOR RELEASE 
THURSDAY 
December 22, 1966 

ASK HALT OF FEDERAL CASH TO 
TENN. URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT 

Rights Attorneys Taking Hard 
Look At Urban Renewal Patterns 

WASHINGTON---The U, S, Department of Housing and Urban Development 
today received a complaint from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 
Fund, Inc. (LDF) calling for the halt of urban renewal funds for 
Pulaski, Tennessee. 

This complaint, the last remedial remedy prior to formal litigation, 
sets the stage for a new thrust of litigation against local urban 
renewal agencies across the nation which overlook rights of Nogro city 
dwellers. 

The LDF is also asking the Department of Housing for a prompt 
hearing on this complaint, asserting that the proposed Westside Urban 
Renewal Project deprives Negro complainants of equal protection of the 
laws and due process under the 14th Amendment. 

Jack Greenberg, LDF Director-Counsel, stated: 

"Urban renewal has too often consisted of Negro removal. Until 
now, apart from a case which the LDF won in Nashville in 1964, the 
courts have not protected the rights of Negroes against this threat. 

"We have just furnished our 250 cooperating attorneys with legal 
materials spelling out means of enforcing the right of Negro citizens 
against being uprooted and then compressed further into the ghetto. 

"This proceeding is the first in a series." 

The Pulaski Housing Authority, despite formal requests for con- 
sideration by Negroes, has proposed a project that would remove Negroes 
from a highly desirable area. 

LDF attorneys point out that local Pulaski officials are in vio- 
lation of federal statutes in that no dwellings “conforming to urban 
renewal standards are available to persons to be displaced who are 
ineligible for public housing." 

Other violations of federal law cited in the LDF complaint stem 
from the fact that: 

* displaced persons ineligible for public housing are being offerec 
vacant lots. 

* these vacant lots are “located in areas clearly less desirable 
than the proposed urban renewal area with regard to public 
utilities and commercial facilities." 

The LDF complaint further asserts that Pulaski officials are in 
violation of the Department of Housing's Urban Renewal Manual in that: 

* boundaries of the proposed development “have been drawn to ex- 
clude a group of white occupied houses adjacent" to the Negro 
homes. 

* “these white occupied houses have been permitted to remain as 
nonconforming uses in an industrial zone" 

(more) 

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ASK HALT OF FEDERAL CASH TO 2: 
TENN, URBAN RENEWAL PROJECT 

* "there are competing demands for the 45 units of public housing 
presently being constructed under a previous public housing 
project" 

All told, the projected Westside Urban Renewal Project will 
effect total clearance by clearing away 52 structures and cisplacing 
46 Negro residents, 24 owner-occupants and 22 tenants from a 17,64 
acre site. 

Redevelopment of the land will be restricted to commercial and 
industrial uses. 

No residents from the designated area participated in planning of 
the new project. The two Negro members of the Citizen's Advisory 
Committee do not live in the area “and are not considered representative 

by its residents," 

Both Negro “advisors" own vacant land which would be available 
for Negro relocation if the loan and grant application is approved by 
the Department of Housing. 

LDF attorneys were assisted in preparation of the complaint by 
Yale Rabin, a city planner and a fellow in the American Institute of 
Planners. Mr, Rabin is also Principal Planner at the University of 
Pennsylvania Office of Institutional Studies and Planning, 

Mr, Rabin and LDF attorney Sheila Rush Jones journeyed to Pulaski 
and did an on-the-spot study of conditions. Their findings play a 
major part in the LDF complaint. 

That complaint was prepared by Mr. Greenberg, James Nabrit III, and 
Mrs, Jones of the LDF's New York headquarters, and Avon Williams of 
Nashville, Tennessee, 

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