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 December 04, 2025.
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° 10 Columbus Circle
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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.
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