Spriggs Organizes Project to Check Deterioration of Slum Neighborhood

In a revolt against "the picayune approach to civil rights," Kent Spriggs 1G is organizing a neighborhood conservation program for the predominantly Negro Slum area near the Margaret Fuller Settlement House, northeast of Central Square.

The project, which is sponsored by the Civil Rights Coordinating Committee, will try to improve the neighborhood by encouraging stricter enforcement of the Cambridge Building Code.

Spriggs said classes will start soon for training University students to explain the code to residents and help them report their complaints. The students will work through the Fuller House.

Enforcing the code "will save a tremendous number of homes and stimulate a sense of community," Springs explained. "It's also far more fruitful than trying to get a Negro in every Radcliffe kitchen," he continued.

"Discrimination here is so subtle," he noted, "that students can't do very much by just going out and picketing. We should help the living conditions of the people involved.

The Coordinating Committee is also preparing a survey of employment opportunities for Negroes in Boston banks, insurance companies, and utilities.