For almost two generations the N.A.A.C.P. has devoted much of its time to representing the Negro in courts throughout the nation. Last week the organization was more than a little embarrassed at having to defend itself against charges pressed by its own chief lawyer. The N.A.A.C.P. board of directors, said General Counsel Robert Carter, acted in a manner that was "arbitrary, demeaning and intolerable" when it fired Lewis Steel, 31, one of his ablest staff attorneys.
Steel stirred up the trouble by writing an article entitled Nine Men in Black Who Think White, a blunt attack on the U.S. Supreme Court...