Memorandum re: Proper Identification of NAACP LDF in Support of which the National Sports Committee is Being Formed

    ® 

4 President 

z Hon. Francis E, Rivers 
PRESS RELE Bretton Cleanse 

egal fefense lund Jack Greenberg 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. MONDAY ee seace DeVore Trt 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y, 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 January 23, 1967 NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

5 

MEROGORANDUM 

TO: Metropolitan Sports Writers and Announcers 

RE: Proper Identification of NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 
Fund, Inc, in support of which the National Sports Committee 
is being formed. 

PER: Jesse DeVore, Director of Public Information 

This memorandum is an attempt to head off a mistake frequently made 
by well-intentioned journalists. We refer to the understandable 
confusion between the two organizations, the NAACP and the NAACP 
Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). These are separate, dis- 
tinct, and individual organizations, 

The LDF was established as an independent organization by the NAACP 
in 1939, The purpose was to raise tax-free monies for litigation 
and to remove the legal fight from routine organizational confine- 
ments, 

Since 1939 the LDF has grown and now serves as the legal arm of the 
entire civil rights movement, Today our attorneys represent all of 
the major civil richts groups and any individual with a bonafide 
civil rights claim. 

Our correct designation is the "NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 
Fund, Inc.", but since this is admittedly long, we shortened it to 
the "NAACP Legal Defense Fund", or to "LDF", 

WHAT HAS THE LDF DONE? 

For the past 27 years the LDF has led the long struggle to secure 
full constitutional rights for every Negro through process of law. 
Hence, the LDF has been responsible for the major breakthroughs in 
the courts, breakthroughs which have paved the way for historic 
advances, including the 1954 decision of the United States Supreme 
Court outlawing segregation in public schools. 

The Director-Counsel of the LDF is Jack Greenberg, successor to 
Thurgood Marshall, now Solicitor General of the United States, He 
heads a staff of 20 New York based lawyers who work with more than 
200 cooperating attorneys stationed across the country. This staff 
is currently handling more than 400 separate cases and representing 
more than 13,000 individuals, 

TODAY THE LDF . « « 

* represents, through 177 lawsuits in 13 states, the interests of 
two million Negro children in the South still confined to in- 
ferior, segregated schools -- the same poor-quality education 
that has made economic outcasts of their parents. 

* is suing for reinstatement of hundreds of Southern Negro teachers 
arbitrarily dismissed following partial school desegregation. 
The LDF has already won reinstatement for teachers in Arkansas, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 

* challenges discriminatory practices against Negro patients or 
physicians in federally financed hospitals, Negroes are often 
placed in hallways to make room for whites, relegated to anti- 
quated facilities, abused by hospital personnel. 



Jantary 23, 1967. 

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* represents Negroes denied jobs or promotion solely because of 
their’ race, Defendants are companies, trade unions, and employ- 
Ment agencies charged with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964, No attempt to enforce this law in the courts exists 
apart from suits filed by the LDF. 

* defends members of civil rights organizations and unaffiliated 
individuals who have been unfairly arrested in peaceful and con- 
stitutional protest actions against segregation and discrimination, 
a total of more than 20,000 individuals in the past five years. 

LDF INCOLIE 

The income of the LDF is reflective of the organization's increased 
program in recent years. That budget in 1963 was $750,000; in 1964 
$1,400,000; and in 1965 it was $1,716,000. The projected budget 
for 1966 is $2,000,000. Hence, the financial implications of the 
Ford grant of $1,000,000, which is allocated for use over a three 
year period, can be clearly seen, 

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