NAACP Legal Defense Fund Needs Money NOW

Press Release
August 18, 1955

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Needs Money NOW preview

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  • Press Releases, Loose Pages. NAACP Legal Defense Fund Needs Money NOW, 1955. 3a822f3f-bc92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/fef38b08-d41e-4f5f-8f08-141fb2b6e8bb/naacp-legal-defense-fund-needs-money-now. Accessed May 04, 2025.

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NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND 
107 WEST 43 STREET «© NEW YORK 36, N. Y. © JUdson 6-8397 
ARTHUR B. SPINGARN THURGOOD MARSHALL 
President Director and Counsel 

WALTER WHITE ROBERT L. CARTER 
Secretary Assistant Counsel 

ALLAN KNIGHT CHALMERS ARNOLD DE MILLE 
Troasurer Press Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND fivg 1h 
NEEDS MONEY Now 

Last year when the U. S. Supreme Court decided that racial 

segregation in public education violated the Constitution, Negroes 

throughout the country were elated. 

Few realized that this decision came about only after years and 

years of hard work by many, including large groups of volunteer lawyers 

and social scientists, 

Few realized the several hundred thousands spent on expenses in 

these cases. 

Hardly anyone ever paused to consider the threats and intimida- 

tions against the parents of the school children involved, Most 

Americans simply took all of this for granted, 

Now, after the last decision in these cases, the deep South is 

again showing its hand, 

At least two Negroes in Mississippi have been killed for insist- 

ing on the right to vote. 

White Citizens! Councils are cropping up all over the South, de- 
termined to destroy all economic advantages for Negroes. 

Governors and attorneys general have said repeatedly that they 

will litigate this matter for fifty or a hundred years, 

Louisiana has appropriated $100,000 to resist court actions in that 
state, Other states have assigned six to fifty lawyers to oppose cases 
in their states. Negro teachers are a intimidated and discharged. 

You have read about these and other thallenges in your own news- 

papers. You have felt sorry for these pebple. You are sure that the 

NAACP will meet these ever increasing challenges. 

Again, you are taking it as a matter of course because the NAACP 
has never let you down. 

I have news for you: We will not be able to meet these challengey 
unless we get the money to do it. 

We have always had difficulty meeting our regular budgets. We 

cannot meet this heavily financed new assault unless you stop taking us 

for granted and dig deep into your pockets -- and do it nowt 

Thurgood Marshall 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

107 West 3rd Street 
New York 36, N,. Y, 

(Contributions are deductible for U.S, Income Tax Purposes.)

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