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A RIGHTS OFFICE BURNED IN SOUTH
February 5, 1971, Page 6Buy Reprints
CHARLOTTE, N. C., Feb. 4—An intentionally set fire today destroyed a frame office building housing the interracial law firm of Julius L. Chambers, a civil rights lawyer who represents the Negro plaintiffs in the Charlotte school desegration case now before the United States Supreme Court.
City fire investigators said the fire had been set, apparently with a chemical, at the rear of the two‐story building, some time in the pre‐dawn hours. A Justice Department spokesman said the Federal Bureau of Investigation would investigate the possibility of a violation of Federal law.
Personnel in the Charlotte police crime laboratory late today were examining a white plastic container that was found at the scene of the blaze. They would not say what chemical it had contained.
The incident is the latest in, a series of terroristic attacks on Mr. Chambers and his family.
Mr. Chambers who is 36 years old, was out of town at the time of the fire. Upon his return late today he said damage probably exceeded $50,000. Some records were “very seriously damaged,” including those regarding several suits charging discrimination in employment.
The firm, Chambers, Stein, Ferguson and Lanning, has some insurance, he said.
Mr. Chambers's firm has taken on hundreds of civil rights cases in the state, many in collaboration with the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
In New York, the fund's director‐oounsel, Jack Greenberg, said it would provide assistance to Mr. Chambers. However, he did not indicate what kind of aid would be made available.
Mr. Chambers, a Negro, was in the news this week during his defense of Reginald Hawk ins, a Negro dentist and former North Carolina gubernatorial candidate, from charges of malpractice growing out of work in a Federally funded dental care program for poor children.
One of the partners in the firm, Adam Stein, speculated that publicity from the Hawkins case or the school case might have prompted today's attack.
Salvaged from the burnedout building today were files on the firm's suit against the Charlotte‐Mecklenburg County school board, a suit that resulted in a Feb. 5, 1970, decision by United States District Judge James B. McMillan that the board must implement a desegregation plan calling for extensive cross‐busing of students.
That decision has been appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on it.
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