Legal Defense Fund Gains Greater Boston Committee
Press Release
April 20, 1964
Cite this item
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Press Releases, Volume 1. Legal Defense Fund Gains Greater Boston Committee, 1964. 077cc5df-b492-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/2949a294-4c5e-4c81-841d-c27d8d63098e/legal-defense-fund-gains-greater-boston-committee. Accessed November 23, 2025.
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Legal Defense and Educational Fund
PRESS RELEASE
President
Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers
Director-Counsel Boston Office
Jack Greenberg
FOR drsociate Comat 419 Boylston Street, Rm, 707
IMMEDIATE Constance Baker Motley
RELEASE CO 2-3850-51
LEGAL DEFENSE FUND GAINS
GREATER BOSTON COMMITTEE
BOSTON, MASS.--The Greater Boston Committee of the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund will be officially launched here tonight (April
20th) at a capacity dinner-meeting at the Harvard Club.
Guest speakers will be Earl Johnson, chief counsel for the state
of Florida for the Legal Defense Fund and Charles Morgan, formerly of
Birmingham, Ala.
Mr. Morgan now serves as counsel for the American Association of
University Professors in Washington. He gained fame when he dared to
speak out against the inertia of his fellow white citizens of Birming-
ham,
Mr. Johnson has handled numerous Legal Defense Fund cases in his
native Florida, including cases growing out of the recent riots in
that city.
Mark Howe of Harvard law school will act as master of ceremonies,
James Lawrence, Jr., chairman of the organizing group explained
earlier that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a separate organization
from the NAACP, serves as the legal arm of the entire civil rights
ovement,
Its attorneys, Mr. Lawrence said, represent Martin Luther King
and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress of
Racial Equality, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the
NAACP.
Last year the Legal Defense Fund:
*Defended 10,487 citizens arrested during peaceful demonstrations.
Legal Defense Fund lawyers carried this load in addition to their
regular responsibilities.
*Represented Negro Americans in 30 cases presented to the U.S.
Supreme Court. This made the Legal Defense Fund second only to
the U.S. Justice Department in cases placed before the high court
for review.
*Maintained a staff of 12 lawyers, based in its New York City
national headquarters, who were augmented by 102 cooperating attor-
neys across the nation.
*Fought 168 separate groups of legal actions in 15 states on behalf
of thousands of Negroes seeking basic constitutional rights,
_.The Boston group will serve a two-fold purpose: to more closely
familiarize area citizens with the role of law in the current civil
rights struggle, and to raise funds.
Among distinguished Bostonians assisting Mr. Lawrence are Thomas
B, Adams, Canon James P, Breeden, Attorney General Edward L, Brooke,
Bishop John M, Burgess and Francis H. Burr.
(more)
Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Soe
Legal Defense Fund Gains -2-
Greater Boston Committee
Also Oscar Burrows, Henry B. Cabot, Bronson W. Chanler, Philip
Eiseman, Mr. Howe, Ralph Lowell, Thomas H. Mahoney, and Sidney R.
Rabb,
In addition, Elliot L. Richardson, Carl Sapers, R. Minturn
Sedgwick and Herbert E. Tucker, Jr.
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