Shifting Emphasis of Civil Rights Law

    “A eae 

November 6, 1965 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: Selected Washington Area Journalists 

FROM: Jesse DeVore, director, Public Information 
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Inc. 

SUBJECT: Shifting Emphasis of Civil Rights Law 

NEW YORK---Implementation of the fair employment Provisions of the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, and anti-poverty programs will be the main topics at 
a civil rights law institute sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educa- 
tional Fund, November 5 - 7. 

The institute, one of four held annually, will be at Arlie House, 
Warrenton, Va. 

It is the first to deal specifically with how civil rights lawyers and the 
war on poverty can complement each other. 

Some of the specifics to be covered include: 

* The unparalleled scope of the implementation needed to carry 
out the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is altering the role of the 
civil rights attorney. 

* Civil rights attorneys are now being briefed in community action 
projects. 

* Civil rights attorneys must now be able to represent Negroes 
before federal departments and administrative commissions. 

* Civil rights attorneys must now be concerned with legal services 
for the poor. 

The three days of meetings are designed to bring the lawyers up to date 
on recent legislative and judicial developments as they affect criminal, civil 
and civil rights law and procedure. 

Jack Greenberg, Legal Defense Fund director-counsel, will deliver 
introductory remarks and Prof. Michael Sovern of Columbia University Law School 
will serve as the new faculty coordinator of the institute series. 

Professor Marvin Frankel of Columbia, who coordinated previous 
sessions, was recently appointed to the federal bench in New York by President 
Johnson. 



Lecturing and conducting seminars for the lawyers will be distinguished 
law professors from leading universities, government anti-poverty program offi- 

cials and Legal Defense Fund staff lawyers. 

The institute will emphasize what the Legal Defense Fund recognizes to 
be the new trends in civil rights. 

Despite passage of the Civil Rights Act, demonstrations continue, many 
protesting segregation in education, employment and public accommodations; 
the very areas the law was designed to cover. 

A lack of power or willingness to enforce civil rights legislation on the 
part of government agencies means that other forms of pressure must be brought to 
bear to secure meaningful compliance. 

In announcing the first suit to enforce the law's fair employment provi- 
sions last week, Mr. Greenberg called the Equal Employment Opportunity Com- 
mission's lack of enforcement power a weakness of the Act. 

Fund attorneys have been critical of the Department of Health, Educa- 
tion and Welfare for not using the power, granted by the Act, to withhold federal 
funds from hospitals practicing discrimination. 

Equally criticized has been the Office of Education for accepting 
tokenism and evasion in school desegregation plans and refusal to withdraw finan- 

cial support from school districts practicing little or no desegregation. 

Additionally, new state challenges to federal civil rights legislation 
must constantly be dealt with. 

In Mississippi, for example, the Legal Defense Fund, joined by the 
Justice Department, last month won the first round of a fight against a Mississippi 
tuition law that effectively denied public education to an estimated 7,000 
children, most of them Negroes. 

Included in the institute will be talks by Fred Cohen, professor of law 
at the University of Texas, on legal services for the poor, and B. Michael Rauh 
of the Office of Economic Opportunity, on federal grants under the Legal Services 
to the Poor program. 

Vernon Jordan of the Office of Economic Opportunity, Atlanta Re- 
gional Office, will discuss community action programs, and Albert Rosenthal, 
of the Small Business Administration, will speak on how his agency can help 
lawyers and their clients. 

A panel on Title VII, the Equal Employment section of the Civil Rights 
Act, which took effect July 2, will comprise Samuel Jackson of the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission; Frank Reeves, Howard University law 

Bs 



professor, and Herbert Hill, labor director of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People. 

Speaking on legal procedures in criminal cases will be Anthony 
Amsterdam, professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, and Albert Sacks, 
Harvard law professor will speak on procedure in civil cases. 

Also addressing the institute will be Legal Defense Fund Staff Lawyers 
Charles H. Jones, Jr., and Norman C. Amaker, who will discuss their roles in 
the litigation surrounding last spring's demonstrations in Selma, Ala., and the 
historic march on Montgomery. 

Miss Marian Wright of the Fund's Jackson, Miss. , office, will speak 
on legal practice and the civil rights movement in Mississippi.