The Black Lawyer -- A Key to an Advancing Society

    PressRelease 8 Se {a 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

March 14, 1972 

THE BLACK LAWYER ~~ A KEY TO AN ADVANCING SOCIETY 

Backgrounder 

= Less than one percent of the approximately 325,000 

lawyers in the United States are black.* There is one black 

lawyer for every 7,000 black Americans as compared with one white 

lawyer for every 637 white Americans. In the South, the disparity 

widens considerably. William T. Gossett, who has just completed 

his term as President of the American Bar Association, said in an 

address on March 19, 1968, "In the South and Southwest there are 

now only 350 black lawyers to serve a black population of 13 

million -- in other words, one black lawyer for every 37,000 black 

Americans." Some of those 350 lawyers are employed by the federal 

government or are in other programs, further reducing the number 

available for the private practice of law. 

Unless heroic efforts to correct this situation are made 

now, the percentage of black lawyers to the total black population 

will decrease further. According to the Association of American 

Law Schools, in recent years only slightly more than one percent 

of the law students in the United States have been black. 

The dearth of black lawyers is a little-understood 

impediment to a society trying to reach upward out of poverty 

and ignorance. 

Lawyers are usually natural leaders in the business, 

civic and political life of a community. Knowledgeable 

practitioners of the law are essential to assist a people headed 

into the mainstream of a nation whose stability rests on the rule 

of law. As minorities profit from the benefits which flow from a 

social and economic order rooted in law, they learn to participate 

(more) 

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N.Y. 10019 | (212) 586-8397 

William T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Director-Counsel 



THE BLACK LAWYER -- PAGE 2 

in, as well as make use of, the proce of law itself. 

The poor and the uneducated are the most likely victin 

of the denial of legal ri ts. In the South, even more tt 

other parts of the nation, black people have always suffered from 

an imbalance of justice and an absence of friendly lawyers. The 

could be eé normal progress any communi spected to make over the 

generations has been denied to most black communities across the 

South. Victims of cruel discrimination, they have lacked the 

knowledgeable professionals who could help them to use the law to 

achieve upward movement of their community. It has been and is 

South to come to still necessary for lawyers from outside of 

the aid of Southern blacks. But it is not possible for the most 

willing and hardworking outside lawyers to make more than a small 

dent in the myriad problems facing the people. Indigenous lawyers 

are essential. 

In order to help prepare the lawyers needed to do the job, 

LDF offers grants. Our grants are not and will not be limited by 

geography; but in any attempt to increase the black lawyer popula- 

tion, one must be ever-mindful of the severe shortage which exists 

in the South and Southwest where the general black population is 

greatest. Many northern blacks whose original home was in the 

South are eager to return there when they have acquired the skills 

to serve the people who need them. We will consider these factors 

in our selection process. 

We do not see recruitment « qualified candidates as a 

problem. Rather, we believe that the number of potential law 

students will be limited only by the scholarship funds we can 

offer. 

Our goal is to add 1,500 practicing black lawyers > the 

current population within seven years. We aim to assist 300 law 

students to enter law schools each year over the next five years 

and to continue our support for the full three years of law school. 

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THE BLACK LAWYER PAGE 3 

Of the graduating lawyers, we expect to select some 200 for a 

postgraduate year of intensive, highly specialized training in 

human rights law and business law most relevant to the black 

community. At the end of the postgraduate year we will assist 

the young lawyer in starting his practice in a community where 

there is a desperate need for his specialty. 

*Howard University Law School's Nov. 1969 Study - 3,000 to 3,200 

For further information contact: Dr. John W. Davis 
Shirley Lacey or 
Abeke Foster at 586-8397