Dixie Hospital Bigotry Cracked by NAACP Legal Defense Lawyers

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE + NEW YORK, N. Y. 10019 © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS JACK GREENBERG CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
President Director-Counsel Associate Counsel 

Ss 

DIXIE HOSPITAL BIGOTRY CRACKED 
BY NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE LAWYERS 

Supreme Court Action of Far Reaching Import 

March 6, 1964 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The U.S. Supreme Court swept away legal founda- 
tions for jim crow practices in 2,000 hospitals and medical facili- 
ties in eleven southern states this week. 

The victory, won by attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund, is one of the most crucial and far reaching since 
the 1954 school integration ruling. 

These eleven southern states have received over a half billion 
federal dollars, to underwrite their segregationist practices, since 
passage of the Hill-Burton act of 1946. 

Jack Greenberg, Legal Defense Fund director-counsel, who led 
the platoon of lawyers, said the high court's action "will put an 
end to keeping Negroes out of white hospitals." 

Moreover, it will put an end to "segregating Negroes within 
hospitals and requiring them to give up their Negro doctors and hire 
white doctors if they want treatment," he went on. 

Mr, Greenberg said the victory "will be an entering wedge for 
Negro physicians into the main stream of medical practice in the 
south, 

"We wait to see whether the medical profession will voluntarily 
follow the law or whether a long hard process of litigation, such as 
we have had with schools, will be necessary," he said. 

The struggle was joined when Dr. G.C, Simkins, Jr., one of the 
plaintiffs, wrote to officials of both the Moses H. Cone Memorial 
Hospital and the Wesley Long Hospital in March of 1960. Both are in 
Greensboro, North Carolina, 

He pointed out that neither would admit Negro physicians and 
dentists. As a result, Negro patients desiring admission would have 
to discharge their Negro doctors or dentists. 

Negro physicians, dentists and patients applied for positions 
and admission to the two hospital staffs and wards but were not 
accepted. 

The Negro plaintiffs included A.V, Blount, Jr., Walter J. 
Hughes, Norman N. Jones, Girardeau Alexander, E.D. Noel, III, and 
F,E. Davis, all qualified medical doctors practicing in Greensboro. 

Also, Dr. Simkins, Milton H. Barnes, and W.L.T. Miller, all 
qualified dentists, practicing in Greensboro. 

The patient-plaintiffs were Donald R, Lyons and A.J. Taylor, 
who has a confirmed gastric ulcer of 35 years duration. It requires 
constant medical supervision. 

Racially segregated hospital facilities built with Hill-Burton 
Money are located in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, 
Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, oe pie pee 

more 



Dixie Hospital Bigotry Cracked -2- March 6, 1964 

by NAACP Legal Defense Lawyers 

The Supreme Court expressed its opinion by refusing to review 
an appeal by the two Greensboro hospitals charged with discrimination 
after Legal Defense attorneys won the case in the U.S, Fourth Cir- 
cuit Court of Appeals last November. 

The hospitals involved in this case, and many others in the 
south, have defended their racial policies om the ground that they 
were "private" and not subject to the Fourteenth Amendment. The 
Fourth Circuit decision rejected that argument. 

The two Greensboro hospitals received money under the Hill-Burton 
Act, which forbids discrimination in general, but maintains a key 

clause: 

"An exception shall be made in cases where separate hospital 
facilities are provided for separate population groups, if the plan 
makes equitable provision on the basis of need for facilities and 
services of like quality for each group." 

This is the provision held invalid by the Fourth Circuit Court, 
whose action was left standing by the Supreme Court. 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorneys, responsible for the victory 
in addition to Mr. Greenberg, include Conrad 0. Pearson, Durham, 
N.C.; James M, Nabrit, III and Michael Meltsner, of New York City. 

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