The Black Lawyer -- A Key to an Advancing Society
Press Release
March 14, 1972

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Press Releases, Loose Pages. The Black Lawyer -- A Key to an Advancing Society, 1972. f7b335c0-bd92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ad99a11f-9d45-45ae-846c-2ad2fc78cf34/the-black-lawyer-a-key-to-an-advancing-society. Accessed April 28, 2025.
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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. (more) 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