J. Greenberg Statement on Why a National Office for the Rights of the Indigent
Press Release
November 22, 1966

Cite this item
-
Press Releases, Volume 4. J. Greenberg Statement on Why a National Office for the Rights of the Indigent, 1966. 56a0ed56-b792-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/4d9e7afc-ca56-4033-9986-212dff04c034/j-greenberg-statement-on-why-a-national-office-for-the-rights-of-the-indigent. Accessed April 19, 2025.
Copied!
Statement by Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund,Inc. (LDF) 10 Columbus Circle, New York City, November 22, 1966. é Why a National Office for the Rights of the Indigent Racial segregation has, for generations, obscured the issues of poverty, As long as Negroes could be kept behind the curtain, literal-~ ly and figuratively, the country could ignore their schooling, their economic status, their housing. But once the decisions of the Court . said that in principle all persons, without regard to race, must be treated as part of this country, that Negro school children may not be kept in segregated schools, awesome implications appeared. The Negro kid who was admitted to a white school didn't come from a decent colored school, much less a deségregated one. He most likely came from a home lacking much of the background that helps a child succeed in school. He came quite likely from an unlivable slum, He possibly had no father at home and his mother, or father, if he had one, couldn't get a decent job. ilaybe the parent was unable to get work because of race, Just as likely the parent had no training to do a job under the néw regime of automation and mechanization even if a job could have been had. In short, problems of society generally began to emergu. And they are not problems of race, but of poverty. In a certain sense, if we ever find any satisfaction in the legaty of slavery, it is that it generated enough emotional and poli- tical force to make the nation undertake an attack on poverty in general. Those of us who years ago were concerned solely with what I might call orthodox issues of civil rights, therefore, have little by little nd more with questions of poverty and issues that affect al] Americans. car ome involved in cases seeking 3 At the Legal Defense und we have bec to make precedent on poverty law questions just as we have over the years been involved in civil rights cases, “le mow have welfare cases » involving the man-in-the-house rule and the employable mother rule; JACK GREENBERG housing cases, involving the rights of public housing agencies to evict without a hearing, or to refuse to house mothers with illegitimate children; in private housing, there is litigation over the right of poor persons to defend eviction proceedings without having to post a bond in twice the amount of the rent; in criminal prosecutions, there are suits over the right of an indigent to be released without bail where an affluent person would have been released because he had the money to put up bail; and the right of an accused misdemeanant to request and have granted court appointed counsel. How the National Office for the Rights of the Indigent Will Work It will work in conjunction with all local law offices concerned with the problems of the poor in an attempt to provide thorough and expert advocacy of major appellate cases, consistent and controlled development of precedent, and where appropriate, coordination of legal approaches to comparable problems. Many cases for poor clients will be settled simply by proper advice or by litigation that does not go beyond a trial or negotiation. But the real task of making new law for the poor will of necessity require much appellate work and the fashioning of strategy and goals which have as much nationwide impact as possible. <30=