Greenberg Statement on Conference and Annual Report on School Segregation Cases and Lawyer Training Program

    113 

% aa 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director Counsel 
egal efense und Jock Cagebere 

Director, Public Relations 

GP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. Teste DeVore, Jr. 
bus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

Statement by Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel, 
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 
Hotel Americana, New York City, May 14, 1970,2 pn. 

Today, on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the Supreme 

Court's historic decision in the school segregation cases, we are 

holding this press conference to release our annual report which 

a) tells of our work during the past year, b) discusses our priorities 

for 1970, and c) contains a brief 30-year history of the LDF. 

Tomorrow we will honor former Chief Justice Earl Warren and at 

the same time launch two major programs of the LDF: 

1. a program which will result in doubling the number of black 

lawyers in the South and equipping civil rights lawyers 

throughout the country to handle civil rights cases with 

greater training and efficiency; 

2. a northern school campaign which will seek, for the first 

time in a sustained way, to integrate schools in that part 

of the country and discredit the false dichotomy which the 

Administration has attampted to create between so-called 

de | facto and de jure segregation; 

3. in support of these and other programs further described in 

the printed report, we will launch a greatly expanded fund 

raising program which seeks to raise $16,250,000 over the 

next three years for law school scholarships, internships, 

summer employment for law students, post-graduate Lawyer 

Training Institutes for law school graduates. 

And, at the same time, we plan to step up our litigation program 

in the various areas described in the printed report being distributed 

today. 

25 



LAWYER TRAINING PROGRAM 

It is a disturbing fact that less than 1% of the nation's lawyers 

are black; that only slightly over 1% of law students are black indi- 

cates a trend which would likely continue if not become worse. The 

Board of Directors of the LDF believes that heroic efforts are 

necessary to counteract this drastic shortage and has therefore 

decided to undertake a program aimed at doubling the number of black 

lawyers within the next seven years. 

LDF is uniquely qualified to take on this responsibility, since 

it has for many years served as the training ground for the most 

effective black members of the bar. With a complete lawyer training 

program currently in existence, it becomes a matter of vastly en- 

larging the number of lawyers we can train. 

The enlarged program contemplates awarding scholarship grants to 

300 students each year over the next five years--a total of 1,500 

law school students. It expects to make those grants cover the 

complete three-year course at law school for each of its awardees. 

The program will provide an accelerating number of summer jobs 

for law students, to help them understand the complexities of consti- 

tutional law and to afford them opportunities to work with expert 

practitioners. In 1970 we and our cooperating lawyers can accept 50 

students in such jobs. By the summer of 1975, we will have increased 

the number of jobs available to 125. 

The heart of the expanded program will be the training of interns. 

An intern spends the post-graduate year under the close supervision 

of an experienced civil rights lawyer, either in LDF's New York head- 

quarters or in the offices of its cooperating attorneys accross the 

country. The young lawyer will gain first-hand experience in cases 

affecting human rights. When he completes this post-graduate year, 

LDF will help the young lawyer to begin his law practice in an area 



where his services and expertise are desperately needed. We will 

pay the lawyer a diminishing subsidy over a 3-year period, enabling 

him to take cases for defendants who cannot pay legal fees. We can 

give intensive supervision to 23 law interns in 1970. This will 

accelerate to 62 interns in 1974. 

The program contemplates training a total of 204 interns over 

the next five years. 

LDF's Lawyer Training Institutes, under the direction of the 

Dean of Columbia University Law School, Michael I. Sovern, are 

essential for the civil rights lawyer. They are designed to stretch 

the lawyer's mind and keep him abreast of current developments in the 

law. They are an indispensable part of the learning experiences for 

the young intern because he can participate in wide-ranging, in-depth 

discussions of litigation in progress by some of the best minds in 

the field. Three such Institutes will be held in the course of each 

year. 

We plan to add a series of intensive seminars to the Institutes 

for the benefit of all newly graduated black lawyers who wish to 

attend. We will be extending their educational experience while at 

the same time giving them a chance to meet colleagues who are also 

about to begin law practice. We are eager to see young black lawyers 

form law firms wherever possible, and we will do what we can to 

encourage such development. In recent years we have been instrumental 

in helping to start a few interracial law firms in the South--the 

beginning of a direction we hope to pursue. 



NORTHERN SCHOOL INTEGRATION PROGRAM 

LDF proposes to develop school integration projects in 36 

communities outside the South over a three-year period (12 new school 

districts a year). 

Staff will identify medium-size urban school districts where 

integration is technologically feasible, using the resources of the 

U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, regional educational laboratories 

universities, etc. 

In each community LDF will organize a local group which will 

document the facts of racial isolation, develop a strategy to eliminate 

it and mobilize public support. LDF's role will be to provide infor- 

mation, resources and technical assistance to these local groups: 

information about the law; training programs for community leaders, 

school officials, lawyers; experts to assist in developing imaginative 

school integration plans; the tools of technology such as the use of 

computers where necessary, etc. LDF will be particularly concerned 

to disseminate information which will enable minority group citizens 

to participate in educational decision-making processes. 

LDF will develop a national school integration resource center. 

(1) Skills bank of experts 

(2) Training projects for lawyers, community workers, parents 

(3) Clearinghouse and communications network: information about 

Federal programs, sharing of community experiences, especially 

about what works. 

Special effort will be made to involve those institutions especially 

the churches and the institutions of higher education which serve 

middle America. 

Special projects will be developed in communities where the 

goals of community control and integration can be pursued together. 

We do not contemplate that LDF will be required to file suits 

in all the target communities. In some, where local citizens decide 



to file suits using their own attorneys, LDF's role will be to ensure 

that the quality of the legal work is high by making its training 

program and consultative services available to local lawyers. In 

a few situations, an active community organization which has high 

quality technical assistance from a national office may be able to 

do its own thing without litigation, perhaps through political channels. 

For the overall success of the national program, LDF will: 

(1) file some carefully selected test cases in northern 

communities each year. 

(2) Research the potential for and then file test cases involving 

educational issues which go beyond integration such as 

resource allocation and the obligation of states to ensure 

equal educational opportunity. 

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