In 1923 the Texas legislature passed a law that barred African Americans from participating in the Democratic primary. Because the Democratic Party was the predominant political party in Texas, black voters were therefore denied any real choice in the general election. The NAACP secured a plaintiff, Dr. L.A. Nixon of El Paso, to contest the law.  On March 7, 1927, the Supreme Court ruled in Nixon v. Herndon that the so-called “white primary” law violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In this letter L.W. Washington, President of the NAACP branch in El Paso, appeals to the NAACP for support in the case.