Memorandum from the LDF to the Los Angeles Area News Media on Proper Identification of the Legal Defense Fund and the NAACP

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October 22, 1965

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Memorandum from the LDF to the Los Angeles Area News Media on Proper Identification of the Legal Defense Fund and the NAACP preview

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Press Releases, Volume 3. Memorandum from the LDF to the Los Angeles Area News Media on Proper Identification of the Legal Defense Fund and the NAACP, 1965. e7c72265-b692-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/83f847e8-28fe-4219-85d8-540441b5c305/memorandum-from-the-ldf-to-the-los-angeles-area-news-media-on-proper-identification-of-the-legal-defense-fund-and-the-naacp. Accessed November 02, 2025.

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    October 22, 1965 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: Los Angeles Area News Media £ ne 
We 

FROM: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

RE: Proper Identification of the Legal Defense Fund 
and the NAACP, i 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the 
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are 
NOT the same organization. 

The Legal Defense Fund was fcunded in 1939 by a group 
of distinguished NAACP board members. The Fund was established 
as a separate organization in order t- accept tax-deductible 
contributions tc further the legal fight for civil rights. 

4 
Under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, the Fund was 

responsible for the 1954 Supreme Court school desegregation 
decision, outlawing the "white primary" and other landmark cases. 

Today, under Jack Greenberg, who succeeded Mr. Marshall, 
the Fund is often called "the legal arm of the civil rights 
movement." An estimated 90 per cent of the civil rights cases 
not handled by the U.S. Department of Justice, are handled by the 
Legal Defense Fund. 

A staff of 17 New York based lawyers and 121 cooperating 
attorneys throughout the nation carries on the legal fight. 

While a separate organization, the Legal Defense Fund 
works closely with the NAACP. Many of our cooperating attorneys 
are also active in their local NAACP branches. 

Such is the case in Los Angeles, where Raymond L. Johnson 
and Herman T. Smith, volunteer attorneys for the local NAACP Branch 
are working with Leroy D. Clark of the Fund's New York staff to 
protect the rights of those arrested. Both Los Angeles lawyers 
are also Legal Defense Fund cooperating counsel.

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Memorandum from the LDF to the Los Angeles Area News Media on Proper Identification of the Legal Defense Fund and the NAACP

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