LDF Scholarships to Kentucky Students Aim at Desegregation, More Black Southern Lawyers

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PressRelease B Se (ae oe 

JUN 301978 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

LDF SCHOLARSHIPS TO KENTUCKY 

STUDENTS AIM AT DESEGREGATION, 

MORE BLACK SOUTHERN LAWYERS 

NEW YORK, N.Y. --- Five Kentucky students received scholarship 

assistance from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 

(LDF) last year to attend formerly segregated, state-supported 

colleges and universities, or to study law. 

According to a report compiled by John W. Davis, former 

President of West Virginia State College, and Director of the 

LDF's educational program, more than 300 scholarships -- ranging 

in size from $400 to $2,160, with an average grant of $900 -- 

were awarded to Southern Negro. students who were able to demonstrate 

both scholastic ability and a financial need. 

The Kentucky undergraduates under the LDF educational program 

are Gwendolyn Riffe (E. Kentucky U.) of Danville, and William H. 

Stephens (U. of Kentucky) of Louisville. 

Law students include Richard Gentry, Gilbert King and L.c. 

Taylor all attending the University of Kentucky and all of Lexington. 

Most of these students -- those who have not yet completed 

their educations -- will be eligible next term for similar 

scholarships. In addition, LDF hopes to increase the number of 

scholarships available through its two-pronged educational program: 

the Herbert Lehman Education Fund and the Lawyer Training Program. 

The Herbert Lehman Education Fund was begun in 1964 by LDF 

when its litigation had brought about strict court rulings against 

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ACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10919 | (212) 586-8397 
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LDF SCHOLARSHIPS PAGE TWO 

state-financed, segregated higher education. Through the Lehman 

Fund, LDF provides incentives for black students to enter formerly 

all-white colleges and universities, at the same time providing 

incentives for the institutions -- usually in need of scholarship 

monies -- to accept them. There are currently 122 students under 

this program which has given out 586 scholarships in its 7 years 

of operation. The program was only recently expanded to include 

Kentucky. 

The Lawyer Training Program, on the other hand, was a spin 

off of the Lehman Fund to correct the critical shortage of black 

lawyers which has hampered LDF's efforts to reach out into many 

rural areas. 

According to LDF, black lawyers now comprise only about one 

per cent of the legal profession. The most hopeful estimates of 

the black lawyer/population ratios show one black lawyer for every 

21,230 black Americans. But in some rural sections of the country 

-- especially the South and Southwest -- it is feared that the 

disparity heightens to one black lawyer for every 37,000 black 

Americans. White Americans have no problems obtaining sympathetic 

legal assistance: the national average indicates one white lawyer 

for every 600 white Americans. 

In its first year of operation, the Lawyer Training Program 

assisted some 212 law students (including the 3 Kentucky students) 

and will continue to provide them with scholarships until they 

complete their three years of law training. For the next school 

year (1971-72), an additional 300 3-year law scholarships will be 

made available. This process -- of adding 300 new scholarships 

each year -- will continue until the LDF's seven year goal of 

adding 1,500 blacks to the legal profession is met. 

According to Dr. Davis, the Legal Defense Fund will not only 

provide scholarships to more and more young men and women studying 



LDF SCHOLARSHIPS / PAGE THREE 

law, but will place many of them in summer jobs in its New York 

office and in offices of cooperating attorneys around the country, 

and, to those who show real promise, offer them a post-graduate 

year at the Fund's head office, then help them to set up practice 

in any area sorely in need of a black lawyer. 

The cost of the Lawyer Training Program for a seven-year 

period is expected to run well over $16,000,000. 

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For further information contact: Dr. John W. Davis or 

Sandy O'Gorman 

(212) 586-8397 

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, Inc. is a completely 

separate and distinct organization, even though 

we were established by the NAACP and retain those 

initials in our name. Our correct designation 

is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 

frequently shortened to LDF.