Wilkins to Defend NAACP Against Southern Newspapermen Tonight

Roy E. Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the N.A.A.C.P. and Richard Harwood, Louisville Times Reporter and '56-'56 Nieman Fellow, will speak in a panel discussion at 8 tonight in Emerson D.

The speakers will present opposing views on the topic "N.A.A.C.P.--Hindrance or Help:" in a Harvard Society for Minority Rights program.

Wilkins succeded Walter White last spring as executive secretary of the organization for the advancement of Negroes, after having served many years as a national officer. As head of the N.A.A.C.P., Wilkins will defend the organization's work as a democratic approach to solving racial problems.

Harwood will represent the conservative Southern view toward the N.A.A.C.P., that it is an extremist group trying to undermine long-established southern traditions. However, Harwood, although an indigenous Southerner, has emphasized that he does not personally agree with this conservative southern attitude and will speak for it merely as an objective observer.