Atlanta Daily World

Suit Filed In DC May
Have Local
Effect

Construction of housing units in Atlanta will be affected by a NAACP suit, filed in Washington this week, which attacks the legality of public low-rent housing that discriminates against Negro families.

The NAACP filed the class suit in behalf of Negro property owners who live in the "Old Fort Area" of Savannah, Georgia. Thirteen persons' homes have been condemned so that the Savannah Housing authority can construct a low-rent public housing project.

The housing units will be known as the Fred Wessels Homes.

Thirteen plaintiffs sued to enjoin the Housing and Home Finance Agency, Raymond M. Foley, the agency's administrator; the Public Housing Administration and John T. Egan, PHA commissioner, from giving Federal assistance to the Savannah Housing Authority for the construction and operation of the project.

In accordance with the announced policy, program and plan of the Savannah Housing Authority, which the HHFA and the PHA have approved, the plaintiffs say, colored persons who are displaced, will be denied consideration for admission to the project solely because they are colored, although they meet all the requirements.

FEAR RIGHTS VIOLATION
The plaintiffs seek to have determined the question of whether Federal housing agencies can give Federal assistance to the Savannah Housing Authority for the construction and operation of a public low-rent housing project, from (Continued on Page 5 Column 6)
which they will be excluded because of color, without violating their constitutional rights and the public policy of the United States.
The complaint states that each of the plaintiffs reside in the "Old Fort Area" of Savannah and will be displaced from the site as a result of their homes being condemned. The complaint alleges that each of the plaintiffs is entitled to a preference for admission to any public low-rent housing project built in Savannah because his or her family will be displaced from the site on which the Fred Wessels Homes will be built.
The PHA has contracted to give the Savannah Housing Authority Federal assistance for the construction and operation of a public low-rent housing project on the "Old Fort Area" site, the plaintiffs state.
HOMES CONDEMNED
The Savannah Housing Authority, they add, has acquired title by condemning their homes and has proceeded to demolish the buildings on the site to construct the project.
As a prerequisite to the agreement for Federal assistance, the plaintiffs say, the Savannah Housing Authority submitted to the Federal housing agencies a plan and program, describing the site on which the project will be built in terms of its present racial characteristics and specifying that occupancy of the project would be limited to white families.
The plaintiffs state that PHA and Egan approved the plan and program with the consent and knowledge of the HHFA and Foley. They ask the court to decree:
1. That the HHFA and PHA cannot give Federal assistance to the Savannah Housing Authority for the construction and operation of a public low-rent housing project, from which the plaintiffs and other qualified colored persons are denied consideration for admission solely because they are colored.
2. That the plaintiffs and all other colored persons similarly situated cannot be denied consideration for admission to the Fred Wessels Homes or any other Federally-aided housing project solely because they are colored.
3. That the plaintiffs and all other colored persons similarly situated must be considered for admission and admitted to the Fred Wessels Homes or any other Federally-aided public low-rent housing project.
4. That the preference for admission to the Fred Wessels Home or any other Federally-aided low-rent housing project in Savannah conferred on plaintiffs and other colored persons by the Housing Acts of 1937 and 1949 may not be qualified or limited by race or color.
The plaintiffs also ask the court to enjoin the HHFA and PHA from giving Federal assistance to the Savannah Housing Authority for the construction of a public low-rent housing project, from which the plaintiffs and other colored persons similarly situated will be denied consideration for admission because of color.
The plaintiffs are Prince F. Howard, Ersaline Small, William Mitchell, Mike Maustipher, William Goden, Willis Homes, Alonzo Sterling, Martha Singleton, Irene Chisholm, John Fuller, Benjamin R. Simons, James Young and Ola
Their attorneys are Thurgood Marshall and Constance B. Motley of the NAACP legal staff, New York City; Julius T. Williams, Savannah, and Frank D. Reeves, Washington.