Atlanta Daily World

Fight For N. J. Rights Law Recounted In Crisis

NEW YORK - The successful drive of organized civil rights proponents for enactment of the Freeman Civil Rights Bill by the New Jersey State Legislature, in 1949, is recounted by Philip Greenwood in his article "How History Was Made in the State of New Jersey." in the May issue of THE CRISIS magazine. Mr. Greenwood is executive secretary of the New Jersey State Region of the American Jewish Congress.

Calling the Freeman Law "the most advanced piece of civil rights legislation to appear on the statute books of any state in the union," Mr. Greenwood describes in detail the concerted action of the Joint Council for Civil Rights toward securing enactment of the law. This group, composed of the NAACP, AJC, and fifty other state-wide organizations, launched an unprecedented campaign throughout, enlisted an army of active workers, organized forums, held a series of mass meetings, bombarded state assemblymen and senators with communications, sponsored radio broadcasts, sent delegations to visit representatives and prevailed upon newspaper editors to publish editorials and on ministers to preach sermons on behalf of the legislation.

Citing a week-end intensified effort which swayed twenty-two abstaining legislators to support the bill, Mr. Greenwood vividly demonstrates the kind of positive action that can be secured by clear unmistakable, and insistent expression of the will of the people.

Also appearing in the May CRISIS are "Anatomy of Political Decadence," a review of V. O. Key's SOUTHERN POLITICS by Henry Lee Moon, "A Wake Up Service," by Mabel Love; "A California Triviality," by Joseph W. Eaton, and "Separate Is Not Equal," a presentation of the facts in the Sweatt education case, by Edna B. Kerlin.