Greenberg Statement on Civil Rights Lawyers

    Remarks of k Director-Counsel, 
NAACP Le eget D é d nal Fund, Inc. (LDF) 
in Blue Room, CL ey Ha Monday, May 15, 11:00a.m. 

Over the years the civil rights lawyers' role-has had different 

emphases. Before 1954 we were.devoted mainly to making precedent. 

In the early sixties we were the shield of the movement, protecting 

demonstrators from t e police, keeping them from jail. 

Not since 1959, just before the sit-ins, freedom rides, and 

protest demonstrations--e.g., Birmingham and Selma--has the civil 

rights movement been so wanting in direction and thrust. At the same 

time the opportunities for constructive echievanent and the need for 

efforé are vast. 

Some reasons for uncertainty and inertia are apparent. Many 

clearly defined goals have been achieved. The employment, public 

accommodations, voting, and education portions of the 1964 and 1965 

Civil Rights Acts have established principles which will never again 

be the subject of struggle, as principles. But on some unresolved 

issues, for example, housing integration, and so called de facto 

segregation, there is far from agreement. To implement eae settled 

principles in concrete situations often involves complex questions of 

fact. And progress must breast a tide of political, economic, and 

educational considerations that can't be neatly packaged and managed. 

The cry of "Black Power," whatever it might mean in various con- 

texts,. has created polarities, often tense and emotional, among those 

who two years ago were civil rights allies. The war in Vietnam, 

whatever one's position on it, has enlisted energies in support of 

that position which several years ago were devoted to advancing civil 

rights. 

At this time the lawyer's main concern is somewhat different but 

just as essential. We operate through the courts. When we properly 

muster valid legal argument and an accurate statement of facts, the 

courts will answer our petition. We of the Legal Defense Fund can 

get action through the courts, and we have, with respect to housing, 

education, employment, health care, welfare, fair administration of 

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Remarks of Jack Greenberg, May 15, 1967 2s 

the criminal laws, and so forth. Courts must and do hand down decisions 

--unlike the Congress and State Legislatures, or public opinion, which 

nowadays remain indecisive. To the extent that we can summon lawyers 

and funds, we can command legal and social change today while others 

may have to await a new constellation of forces before marching forward 

again,