Luncheon to Honor Constance Baker Motley for Work with NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Press Release
November 6, 1965

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Luncheon to Honor Constance Baker Motley for Work with NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 1965. d447356b-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/2e59e3c9-e7c4-437f-9b8d-9d26e2a5dbb4/luncheon-to-honor-constance-baker-motley-for-work-with-naacp-legal-defense-fund. Accessed October 09, 2025.

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    ° 10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE 
Presiden 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Director-Counsel Saturday, November 6, 1965 

ack Greenberg 

LUNCHEON TO HONOR CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY 
FOR WORK WITH NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND 

NEW YORK---lirs. Constance Baker Motley, Manhattan borough president, 

will be honored Nov. 20 for her work as associate counsel of the 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. 

Mrs. Motley will be guest of honor at the 17th anniversary 

luncheon of the National Committee for Rural Schools at New York's 

Hotel Commodore. 

The committee, organized by Miss Rae Pradstein of New York to 

aid children attending second-rate, rural southern schools, annually 

honors two persons for outstanding contributions to civil and human 

rights. 

Also honored this year will be Gerry Wors, national president 

of the State, County and Municipal Workers Union, who fought dis- 

crimination as he organized hospital workers throughout the nation. 

Mrs. Motley, who won a landsiide election to the borouch presi- 

dency this week, served nearly 20 years with the Legal Defense Fund 

before being elected by Manhattan city councilmen to fill en unex- 

pired term as borough president last year. 

Beginning as a Legal Defense Fund law clerk while still a student 

at Columbia University Law School in 1945, she rose to the number two 

administrative post behind Fund Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg. 

A former state senator and one of the few women civil rights 

lawyers in the nation, Mrs. Motley gained national prominence when 

she led the legal fight that resulted in the enrollment of James Mere- 

dith at the University of Mississippi in 1962. 

Mrs. Motley also led the Legal Defense Fund teams that opened the 

doors of the University of Alabama (despite Gov. George Wallace's 

abbortive stand in the doorway), University of Georgia, University of 

Florida and Clemson College, S.C. 

(more) 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss 



ae 

Luncheon to Honor Constance Baker Motley Saturday 
For Work With NAACP Legal Defense Fund November 6, 1965 

With the Legal Defense Fund, the legal arm of the entire civil 

rights movement, Mrs, Motley has scored legal victories in 

virtually every area of racial etrife=-housing; transportation, 

public accommodations, sit-ins, mass demonstrations and criminal 

actions. 

Mrs. Motley's record before the U. S. Supreme Court is 

unblemished. She has won six victories in six appearances. 

She has personally represented the Rev, Martin Luther King, Ure, 

as well as scores of lesser known civil rights workers. 

A native of New Haven, Conn., Mrs. Motley is the wife of Joel 

Motley, a New York real estate and insurance broker. The couple 

has one son, 13-year-old Joel, Jr. 

Mrs. Motley attended Fisk University, and was graduated from 

New York University. 

=a0= 

TEN-YEAR CONTRIBUTIONS 
FOR NEGRO TEACHERS 

TOTAL $202,000 

NEW YORK---Associations of Negro teachers have contributed more than 
$202,000 to the Teacher Information and Security Division the 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, according to a report 
made public today. 

The report said most of the funds came through the National 
Council of Cfficers of State Teachers Associations (NCOSTA), an 

organization founded in 1955, shortly after the Legal Defense Fund 

established itS service for teachers. 

The Fund has provided legal and financial assistance to 
thousands of Negro teachers facing dismissal as southern school 

districts desegregate. 

This Department of Teacher Information and Security is under 

the direction of Dr. John W. Davis, former president of West 

Virginia State College. 

-30-

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Luncheon to Honor Constance Baker Motley for Work with NAACP Legal Defense Fund

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