Jack Greenberg Tribute Dinner Prompts Major Civil Rights Reunion

    NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 

egal efense lund = 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * (212) 586-8397 

JACK GREENBERG TRIBUTE DINNER PROMPTS 

MAJOR CIVIL RIGHTS REUNION 

For immediate release For further information: 

November 29, 1979 Anne Dowling 
(212) 586-8397 

New York, N.Y. — A reunion of prominent civil rights leaders and supporters 

of the past thirty years took place last night in New York City on the occasion of 

the thirtieth anniversary of Jack Greenberg with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa- 

tional Fund, Ine. Among the 700 guests at the tribute dinner at the Pierre Hotel 

were civil rights leaders, judges, law school deans, bar association presidents 

and past presidents, philanthropists, foundation executives, legal scholars, social 

scientists, journalists, clergymen, heads of fraternal organizations, board and 

staff and former staff members of the Legal Defense Fund. 

Among those who. participated in the program which included a gentle roasting 

were: Adrian W. DeWind, Esa., William T. Coleman, Jr., Esq., Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., 

Judge Louis H. Pollak, Mrs. Marian Wright Edelman, Professor Charles L. Black, Jr. 

and Dean Wiley A. Branton. Roy Wilkins, former executive director of the National 

Association for the Advancement of Colored People was a special guest. Congratulatory 

telegrams came from leading politicians, lawyers, friends and supporters. 

Jack Greenberg's contributions to the rule of law are inseparable from the 

NAACP Legal Defense Fund for which he has labored 30 years. He began work for the 

Fund as a volunteer while a.law student. It was then a young organization whose 

lawyers inherited 2 aifficult tradition of defending victims of racial discrimina- 

tion imposed by law and enforced with all the power and prestige of state institu- 

tions and widely-accepted doctrines. 

The Fund's strength, when Jack Greenberg became one of five full-time lawyers 

in November, 1949, was the skill and dedication of staff and cooperating counsel and 

the convictions of those who supported them. They brought commitment to scores of 

arduous cases. With Thurgood Marshall and others, Greenberg was one of those who 

— more -- 

Contributions are deductible for U.S. income tax purposes 

The NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE & EDUCATIONAL FUND is not part of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People although it 

was founded by it and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF has had for over 20 years a separate Board, program, staff, office and budget. 



JACK GREENBERG TRIBUTE DINNER - 2 

argued BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION which in 1954 held segregation in education 

unconstitutional. 

In the 18 years since Greenberg succeeded Mr. Justice Marshall as Director- 

Counsel, Jack and his associates have continued to draw upon the knowledge of the 

ablest legal and social. scientific scholars alive. Since BROWN, Greenberg has 

appeared before the Supreme Court and other courts in innumerable cases striking 

down discrimination and other illegality in education, employment, housing, voting, 

demonstrations, prisons, capital punishment, and elsewhere. 

Consistent with his direction of LDF is Greenberg's seminal influence as 

author and teacher. His books, RACE RELATIONS AND AMERICAN Law (1959) and 

JUDICIAL PROCESS & SOCIAL CHANGE (1977), and his 1973 Cardozo Lecture before the 

New York City Bar Association, LITIGATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: METHODS, LIMITS AND 

ROLE IN DEMOCRACY, are among the. leading treatments of their subjects. For a decade 

he has been Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School and has taught also at Yale 

Law School and City University of New York. 

In May 1976 he worked with Anatoly Shcharansky in. the Soviet Union on behalf 

of Soviet Jews. In 1978 he assisted setting up the first public interest law firm 

in South Africa where, in January 1979, his lecture at the 150th anniversary of the 

University of Cape Town called for a Bill of Rights for all South Africans. 

With the help of Jack Greenberg's initiatives, the Mexican-American LF, 

Puerto Rican LDF, Asian-American. LDF and American Indian legal organizations have 

been launched. Aided by strategies evolved through Fund litigation, public law 

firms are now effective and familiar institutions.