The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Educational Fund was the recipient today of a $5,000 contribution from local radio station WMCA.

    ~PRESS RELEASE 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
10 COLUMBUS CIRCLE «+ NEW YORK 19,N.Y. © JUdson 6-8397 

DR. ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS oa THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director-Counsel 

RELEASE: JUNE 16, 12:00 NOON 

June 16, 1961 

NEW YORK -- The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund was the 

recipient today of a $5,000 contribution from local radio station 

Thurgood Marshall, Director-Counsel of the Fund, received the 

check from WMCA President R. Peter Straus in the radio station's 

offices at 415 Madison Avenue. 

Mr. Straus explained that the money was originally provided as 

a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of indi- 

viduals who participated in the lynching of Mack Charles Parker in 

Poplarsville, Miss., on April 25, 1959. 

Since there has been no indictment the reward money is now being 

contributed to the Legal Defense Fund "in the interest of nurturing 

those who do combat to ensure that other Parkers will not be lynched," 

Mr. Straus said. 

"We are always grateful for contributions of this type," 

Mr. Marshall commented. "With new challenges to segregated institu- 

tions occurring almost daily, the work of the Legal Defense Fund is 

becoming increasingly more expensive, and certainly more important 

than ever." 

The original $5,000 reward was created by WMCA on April 30, 1959, 

five days after the lynching of Parker. The public was urged to add 

to the reward fund, and by 1961 $420 had been contributed by individ- 

ual donors; these private contributions are being returned. 

Two days after newspaper advertisements of the reward appeared 

in the Mississippi and Louisiana press, WMCA received an anonymous 

letter telling of the murder plot and naming ten of the men believed 



to have participated in the slaying. The letter was forwarded to the 

Federal Bureau of Investigation, then investigating the lynching. 

In January and February, 1960, WMCA presented a special program 

on the lynching and its aftermath entitled, "We Accuse." This program 

by a local radio station, was the subject of widespread national com- 

ment, and received first award from Ohio State University's 1960 

Institute for Education by Radio-Television. 

Mr. Straus added, concerning today's donation, that “WMCA's 

indignation has not changed; the sentiments of every privileged 

American are no different; the tragedy is no less than it was two 

years ago." 

Sua 0==