NCC and NAACP Leaders Arrested in Court Action

Top officials from the National Council of Churches and the NAACP came to the U.S. Supreme Court in October to testify that the court should hire more minorities as law clerks. No such case was on the docket, however, and the church executives—including NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, NCC official Rev. Staccato Powell, and others—were arrested after they crossed a police line attempting to deliver petitions to the justices. Of the clerks serving at the time, only one was a minority and one-third were women.