Background Information and Greenberg Statement on New Strategies for School Integration Conference

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND'S NEW STRATEGIES FOR 

SCHOOL INTEGRATION CONFERENCE 
MARCH 13 and 14, 1970 
STATLER HILTON HOTEL, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

The Conference was called by the Legal Defense Fund to mobilize those 

resources within the black and white community that are deeply concerned 

about the racial crisis in this country. 

Attending this conference were LDF cooperating attorneys from North Carolina, 

Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, as well 

as Colorado and Wisconsin. Educational experts, such as Dr. James Coleman 

from Johns Hopkins and William J. Crowley, assistant to the commissioner of 

education of the state of Massachusetts, as well as, professors from 

Northwestern, University of Miami (Florida), Harvard, Yale, and Columbia 

University. Officials from the National Educational Association were also 

present. 

The community people came from places like Rochester, Buffalo, New York City, 

Oakland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, 

as well as, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. 

These community people have been actively involved in the issues of community 

control of schools, pupil and teacher discrimination and school integration. 

Elected state, local and national officials from Minn., Conn., Mich., Ohio, 

Texas and Colorado were also in attendance. 

Over 170 people from all parts of the country representing black and Mexican- 

American communities participated in this conference. 



STATEMENT BY JACK GREENBERG, DIRECTOR-COUNSEL 
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
MARCH 13 and 14, 1970. 

The Legal Defense Fund called this conference because there is a racial 

crisis in this country. It has been brought on by the deliberate admini- 

stration policy of abandoning the previously held goal of a single integrated 

society, The reversal is far from complete, because the courts stand firm, 

and as yesterday's Senate passage of the Voting Rights Act demonstrates, 

the Congress, although under severe pressure from southerners encouraged by 

the administration has not wholly given up the goal of full racial equality. 

But pressures in support of segregation are great, and if not opposed will 

destroy the hope that this can be one nation without regard to race. Many 

black and white citizens, as our meeting revealed, continue to cherish the 

goal of integration, but wonder in despair whether apartheid is inevitable. 

We think it is not inevitable though the threat is more real now than at any 

time in the recent past. We feel that to succumb to hopelessness would be 

to invite a disaster from which we could not emerge for a generation, if ever. 

We called together lawyers, educators, elected officials and community 

leaders from the North and South, from rural and urban areas to consider what 

we should do in view of this situation. A list attached to this statement 

shows the scope of representation. Our commitment continues to an integrated 

society, and particularly integrated education as the best way to educate our 

children, black and white. We will do everything within our power to enforce 

the law, which is the government's primary responsibility, where it has 

abandoned the field or joined the opposition. 

We have learned from this conference,which is unique in the variety and 

extent of community participation, that we can be more effective by intensi- 

fying our contacts with groups such as those whom we brought here today. 

There has never before, to our knowledge, been such a meeting of individuals 

and local organizations, not previously affiliated with one another, to 

consider the racial crisis. We will broaden our contacts with such groups 



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to make available legal services they have not had heretofore. 

We will seek more funds to add to our $3,000,000 annual budget, and 

use volunteer lawyers to pick up the slack. 

There can be faith in our system of government and in democratic 

procedures only so long as they produce constructive change for the good. 

We hope our new thrust will be sufficient to maintain progress until such 

times as national policy acknowledges the true responsibility of the 

United States. 

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 

Inc. is a separate and distinct organization from the NAACP, even though the 

initials are retained in our name. Our correct designation is NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., frequently shortened to LDF.