NEW YORK — Melvin L. Wulf, an ACLU Legal Director has announced that a brief was filed on August 18 challenging the right of US Attorney General Katzenbach to force the W.E.B. Du Bois Clubs to register with the Subversive Activities Control Board as a “Communist-front organization” under the 1950 Subversive Activities Control Act.
The appeal arises out of a decision of a three judge federal court on May 5, 1967 dismissing the complaint brought by the Du Bois Clubs asking that the statute be declared unconstitutional. The court, however, on June 12, 1967 unanimously granted a motion to prevent the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) from any further proceedings against the Clubs until the Supreme Court acted on the appeal filed yesterday.
An independent organization active mainly on college campuses, the Du Bois Clubs have stated their program as advocacy of racial freedom and equality, an end to economic inequalities and an end to the Vietnam War. The Clubs, which envision a socialist form of society, were established in 1964 and named after W. E. B. Du Bois, the famous Negro scholar and humanitarian.
