Materials from Earl Warren Press Conference in Washington, D.C.

    2a 

Press Co 

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MEMO TO THE EDITOR 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund invites 

you to cover a press conference announcing foundation grants 

Un teemtat 3] e 4urare— 
totalling $12460, , 00 leo help increase the number of black 

lawyers in the South. v rt). ize reen, Olean | Me Wet ogg, 
Eowmex Chief Justice Worl Wate will speak at the 

conference, as will Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel of 

the Legal Defense Fund. Justice Warren does not wish to 

appear on # television. 

kw@ere Results of a Carnegie Corporation studg mammk 

evaluating five years of grants for lack acholarhive and 

postgraduate fellowships also will be reported on in detail. 

The results show a dramatic increase in the nunberbt black 

students being trained at predominately white Southern law 

schools. In Washington, EC? Ww, 

The press conference will be held on Wedn¢sday, April 
11:00 A.M, 7 4 

17 oF he Madison Hotel wt 15th and M.Street, Executive 

Chamber I,II,III. 

For futher information, contact: Norman Bloomfield 
Sn Wew Youn Citys c= 

at the Legal Defense F (212) 586-8397, or se Avery Rememki 

Russell, Carnegie eae of New York (212)-753-3100. 



1 v 

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IBY’ NYPR2 1 

FROM PR NEWSWIRE--NYC 212-B32-9400/LA 215-6°5-5501/TA 305-576-50°0/ 

: fTo- City p 

‘CORY’ 10 PHOTO + 

e/NEWS CONFERENCE/ 

THE: NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIUWeL FUND INVITES THE PRESS T 

APRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING FOUNDATION CPANTS TOFALING $1,260,000 

IN SUPPORT CF A PRUGRAM TO HELP. INCREASE THE NUNDSR OF BLACK LAYYERS 

IN THE SOUTH. 

CHIEF JUSTICE EARL WARREN (RETIRED), ‘HONORARY CHOIRMAN OF THE 

PROGRAM, WILL SPEAX AT THE CONFERENCE, 43 “ILI ; REENSERC i ’ 

DIRECTOR-cOUN OF THE Ls SFENSE de JUST IC WAPREN DOES 

NOT WISH'TO APPEAR ON TELEVISION. 

RESULTS OF THE CARNEGIE CORPORATIUN STUDY MOUALTING 5 YERR 

OF GRANTS FUR BLACK LAW-SCHOLARSHIPS AND POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHI2?S 

ALSO WILL BE FE RTED ON IN DETAIL TH UL SHOW A DRAMATIC 

INCREASE. TN THE)NUMSER OF BLAC% STUDENTS 3EING TRAINED AT PRED ONITNE 

WHITES "SCUTHER’ LOW SCHOOLS. 

THE, PR CONFERENCE WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 At 

1} AsMe IN WASHINGTON, D.C THE: IN HOTE fOTH AND MST), 

NeWe, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER I, II, 

CONTACT -- AVERY RUSSELL OF CARNEGIE CORKPURCTION OF NEW YORK 

AT 212-753-5190. OR NORMAN BLOOMFIELD. OF NC¢ACP LEGAL BEFENSE FUND 

AT 242-536-3397. 

-0- 

/APRIL 157 



PressRelease 9 me Si. xe <8 
yo" Contacts: Norman Bloomfield 

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
(212) -586-8397 

Avery Russell 
Carnegie Corporation of New York 
(212)-753-3100 

FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17 
AFTER 11:00 A.M. 

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 17--The Earl Warren Legal Training Program, 

an educational affiliate of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund 

(LDF) has received grants totalling $1,260,250 from Carnegie Corporation 

of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation aimed at increasing the number 

of black lawyers in the South. 

The awards--$960,250 from Carnegie and $300,000 from Rockefeller-- 

were announced here today by the Fund's director-counsel Jack Greenberg, 

at a press conference with former Chief Justice Earl Warren, honorary 

chairman of the program, and a group of black lawyers and law students 

assisted by the programs. Mr. Greenberg said the funds will provide 

scholarships to black law students for three years of law school and also 

post-graduate fellowships to further their training in civil rights law. 

At the same time, Carnegie Corporation released a report evaluating 

the effectiveness of the last five years of grants given by foundations, 

corporations, and the general public to the Legal Defense Fund and the 

Law Students Civil Rights Research Council (LSCRRC)--organizations involved 

in every aspect of the program to encourage blacks to enter law schools 

and practice in the South. The report, entitled A Step Toward Equal Jus- 

tice: Programs to Increase Black Lawyers in the South 1969-1973, includes 

- 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 



2- 

school-by-school enrollment statistics. It shows dramatic gains made 

since 1969 in the number of law students trained in 17 predominantly 

white southern law schools--13 state university law schools and four 

private schools (Duke, Vanderbilt, Tulane, Emory). Between 1969 and fall 

1973, the report stated, black law student enrollment in these schools 

increased from about 22 to 375, nearly three-quarters of whom were 

Earl Warren Scholars. By June 1973 the program provided support for a 

total of 229 graduates, 102 of them graduating last spring. The report 

suggests that since several hundred black law students are currently en- 

rolled, this level of graduates should continue over the next few years. 

Mr. Greenberg said the new grants underscore the findings of the 

report. The additional funds, he said, "will further assure that the 

hard-won civil rights laws of the 1960's will not remain abstract concepts. 

Law is an abstraction until it is made available to people--and for the 

black community that means black lawyers who can help give concrete reality 

to the law's generality." 

The Carnegie grant will support about 40 new scholarships to be 

awarded each year for three consecutive years starting next fall as well 

as 12 four-year post-graduate fellowships. The fellowship program, also 

supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, will provide for a year of post- 

graduate internships in civil rights law under Legal Defense Fund super- 

vision, followed by three years of diminishing stipends which serve as 

fees for civil rights litigation while the young lawyers establish their 

practice, under continued Legal Defense Fund supervision, in southern 

communities where there is an acute shortage of black lawyers. To date, 

71 fellowships have been awarded. 

The report noted that the fellowship "has been extremely successful 

in its basic purpose of getting black lawyers into active practice in the 

South. Without the fellowships many would have likely chosen other careers." 

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The Earl Warren Legal Training Program was launched in 1970, devel- 

oping as an outgrowth of an earlier Legal Defense Fund program established 

in 1963 with initial funding from the Field Foundation. Between 1969 and 

1973, grants to the program totalled approximately $3.75 million from 21 

foundations including major grants from the Field Foundation, Carnegie 

Corporation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Alfred 

P. Sloan Foundation, the Fleischmann Foundation and scores of other indiv- 

iduals and corporations. About $2.9 million of this was spent on the 

southern program. 

During this period the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council 

also received more than $1.6 million from 38 foundations and 15,000 

individuals, of which about $650,000 was spent in the South to recruit 

black students into law schools, provide tutorials and counseling in law 

school, and summer internship experience. 

The results of the Carnegie-commissioned evaluation of these programs, 

which concentrates on the Ford and Carnegie grants, shows that in the 

last five years: 

* Larger numbers of black students are staying in the South to 
go to law school and intend to stay there to practice. Since 
1969, the number of first-year black law students at these 
17 southern law schools has increased from 22 to about 171 
The total number of black students enrolled in those same schools 
in the fall of 1973 amounted to 375. Of 210 students who re- 
sponded to a questionnaire, 171 intended to practice in the 
South. 

* Almost all the 17 predominantly white southern law schools 
are recruiting black students, and applications from black 
undergraduates have increased from 396 in 1970 to 768 in 1972. 

* The increased numbers of black students made it easier to 
appoint the first black law professors at six state university 
law schools. 

* The number of black students graduating from these 17 law 
schools has increased dramatically in the last few years. 
By June of 1972, the program had produced 127 graduates; in 
June of 1973, the Warren program could count 102 additional 
graduates, for a total of 229 graduates, most of them in the 
last two years. Since several hundred black law students are 

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* 
* 

currently enrolled, this level of graduates should continue 
over the next few years 

The summer internship program, which LSCRRC administered, 
placed in the South more than 481 students of both races 
(approximately 50 percent of them black) into summer working 
experiences in civil rights law firms or organizations, and 
government legal programs. The programs, evaluated as "an 
important skills-building experience" has increased the desire 
of students to complete law school by giving them the con- 
fidence that they could function as civil rights attorneys. 
The program also provided a way for black students in northerm 
law schools to test the South for a summer as a place to 
practice after graduation. 

The attrition rate for Warren scholarship students declined 
from 30 percent in 1969 when all recipients were first-year 
students, to 10 percent in 1971, and dropped off significantly 
for second- and third-year students. The overall dropout 
rate is actually about one-third less than the figures would 
indicate since a significant percentage have been readmitted 
in subsequent semesters or transferred to other law schools. 

Larger numbers of young black lawyers are choosing to practice 
in the South. Mississippi, for example, has 49 lawyers in 
the black bar, more than quadruple the 1969 figure. 

Young black lawyers are being drawn into a larger leadership 
role in their communities in the South. Former Warren 
fellows, for example, are serving as the mayor of a town in 
Alabama, in the state legislature in Arkansas, as a municipal 
judge in Houston, on the Board of Elections and the Selective 
Service Board in North Carolina, as a Democratic county chair- 
man in Mississippi, on the city council in Arkansas. Of the 
39 Warren fellowships awarded since 1970, 12 fellows are in 
the first year of their internship and 25 have already begun 
law practice in southern areas. 

The report points out that while substantial gains have been made 

in black law school enrollment, blacks still represent only about 3 per- 

cent of the total number of students enrolled in the 17 predominantly 

white southern law schools. None of these schools has a proportion of 

black students higher than 7 percent of its student body. 

"The law schools still have a long way to go to reach a proportion 

of black students equal to the black population in their states," Greenberg 

stated. "Equal representation in southern courts will never occur until 

there are sufficient black lawyers for every black person who needs one." 

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Today's announced grants bring the total amount contributed to the 

legal training program to $5,024,464 since 1969. 

The President of the Earl Warren Legal Training Program is William 

T. Coleman, Jr. of Philadelphia, Pa., and the Vice President is Louis H. 

Pollak of New Haven, Conn. 

Members of the Executive Committee include: Jean K. Benjamin, 

Ramsey Clark, Adrian W. DeWind, Walter Gellhorn and Chauncey L. Waddell 

of New York City; Julius L. Chambers, Charlotte, N.C.; Marian Wright 

Edelman, Cambridge, Mass.; Clifford L. Alexander, Jr., Patricia Roberts 

Harris, James M. Nabrit, Jr., Washington, D.C.; and Judge William H. 

Hastie and Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Black Students Enrolled in 
7P. White Law Schools 1968-1973 i ae 

First-Year Black Students Exilitvent Bon <Studente 
1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Fall 1973 

Alabama 0 8 2 8 4 3 10 5002 
Arkansas NDA 4° 5* 5* 20% «13 38 639 «5.95 

(includes Little Rock 
and Fayetteville) 

Duke 0 3 4 % 8. 3 24 467 «45.14 
Emory NDA NDA NDA NDA 9* 17 27 627 4.33 

Florida NDA NDA 2 19 4 «16 35 1006 3.48 
Florida State 7 9 10 9 121 32 499 641 
Georgia 0 3 4 8 4 9 14 658 (2.13 
Kentucky 3 6 12 10 Banh 8 18 502 3.59 
LSU 1 0 1 7 1 6 15 943° «1.59 
Mississippi 4 10 u 18 Hen 46 12 667 1.80 
North Carolina 0 2 5 5 10 «14 23 696 3.30 
South Carolina NDA NDA 3 4° 13% 16 26 879 2.96 
Tennessee NDA 3 3 1 6s 16 u 690 1.59 
Texas 3 13 5¢ 3¢ Bi iad rb 1623 0.68 
Tulane 1 2 gy) 8 58 14 5742.44 
Vanderbilt NDA NDA 5 Be 188 15 33 485 6.80 
Virginia 3 13 12 9 7 ge 32 962 3.33 

Totals 22 16 87 136 «149171 375 12,417 ~~ 3.02 
* Statistics with asterisks supplied by LSCRRC; all other statistics supplied by the law school administrations. 

Notes: a. The figures do not include other minorities. 
be ae Bas rase “first-year class” occasionally inclndes transfers and readmissions repeating their firat year. 

icates no data available. 
a. AL data collected in fall of each year. 



from Betty A Stbman 

April 10, 1974 

To: Clarence Todman 

On April 17th there will be a press 
conference to announce the new Carnegie 
and Rockefeller Foundation grants to the 
Earl Warren Legal Training Program. 

This is to advise you that the Carnegie 
Corporation has agreed to pick up the expenses 
of getting Sanford Bishop, Gwen Jones and, 
I believe, a student from the University of 
Virginia to and from Washington for that 
press conference. 

I assume that perhaps you will be 
getting these bills. When you do, please 
let me know so I can arrange for payment. 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 
Suite 1900 + 1776 Broadway, New York, New York 10019 



Justice Warren's Comments 

Legal Defense Fund Press Conference 
11:00 a.m. 

Wednesday, April 17, 1974 
Madison Hotel, Washington, D.C. 

I am sure you can well understand 

that I am delighted to be here today to express my appreciation 

to Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation 

for their generous Support and efforts on behalf of a legal 

training program that is helping bring so Many young black men 

and women into the legal profession. 

When I joined the bar sixty years ago, a black lawyer was indeed 

novelty anda “arity. In the intervening years, conditions have 

changed, but all of us know -- without lengthy documentation -- that 

there is still an acute shortage of black lawyers. Those of us 

who have been concerned about the problem recognize that a deprived 

minority, such as the black community, has never had easy and open 

access to the courts, largely because there have been far too few 

lawyers who are deeply and Personally committed to the needs of this 

community. 

The key -- or perhaps I should Say, one of the keys -- to such 

under=representation is limited access to legal training. Beginning 

about 1965, and coinciding with the Passage of a series of monumental 

Civil Rights Acts, law school enrollment patterns began to change. 

In that year, there were 700 black law students in the entire country. 

Five years later, there were roughly 2,100 -- and today there are 

about 4,000. 

(more) 

a 



Yes, we have made substantial gains in just a few years. 

And these gains, particularly as they apply to the South, are 

described with considerable insight in the Carnegie report. But 

the study also reveals how far we must go to achieve parity in the 

profession. One black lawyer for every 16,000 black citizens in 

the State of Mississippi does not begin to approach even minimal 

requirements for legal representation. It is this aspect of the 

problem that is so critical to the aspirations of the black 

community. 

Many of you will recall that the Supreme Court some years ago 

decided that a State legislative or Congressional district must be 

more or less equal in population. That ruling -- the one-man, one-vote 

decision -- was fundamental to our basic Constitutional rights. Yet 

the decision, for all practical purposes, would have remained an 

abstraction without lawyers able and willing to go into court to make 

the law work. And so it is will all other phases of Constitutional law. 

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of my association with the 

Earl Warren Legal Training Program is the very real promise it holds 

for the future. If we can build on an already existing base, and 

expand our program to encompass 1,500 lawyers, we will be able to 

spread _a network of black attorneys throughout the South. 

I am confident this can be done, hopefully with the 

cooperation of the Southern bar and the alumni of the 17 law schools 

referred to in the report. 

Another heartening aspect of the study deals with the actual 

performance of those participating in the program. The report documents 

(more) 



the fact that most of the students selected for scholarships have 

performed exceptionally well -- and are certainly equal to the task 

of professional education anywhere in the country. On graduation, 

their track record as lawyers is remarkably successful. If the young 

students and lawyers who have joined us today are typical of those 

participating in the program, I would add: the future is indeed 

promising. 

I have read the Carnegie report, A Step Toward 5 stice, 

with considerable gratification, and I am reminded of the words 

emblazoned upon the entrance of the Supreme Court of the United 

States: Equal Justice Under Law. 

That is what the democratic process is all about, and I believe 

our legal training program is a very modest step in that direction. 

I am proud indeed to be associated with the endeavor. 



ot 

Contact: Norman Bloo 

FOR RELEA: 

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 17 -- The Carnegie Corporation of New 

and the Rockefeller Foundation have awarded $1,260,250 to the 

Legal Training Program, an educational affiliate of the NAACP 

and Educational Fund, it was announced here today by the Fund's Director- 

Counsel, Jack Greenberg. 

The grants, which will be used to help increase the number of black 

lawyers in southern states and provide postgraduate legal training in civil 

rights law, were announced at a press conference attended by Justice Warren 

and a group of black lawyers and law students assisted by the program. 

The former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court is honora 

chairman of the program. 

The Carnegie grant totals $960,250 -- of which $417,250 has been 

set aside to provide scholarships to black students for three years of law 

school. Under provisions of the grant, approximately 40 new scholarships 

will be awarded each year for three consecutive years, starting next fall. 

The remaining $543,000 will be used to maintain 12 four-year postgraduate 

fellowships. 

(more) 

Y 4qON10 
¥. 10019 NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. | 10 Columbus Circle | New York, N 

William T. Coleman, Jr. - President Jack Greenberg - Direct 



=e 

The fellowships provide funds for a year of postgraduate internship 

in civil rights law under Legal Defense Fund supervision, followed by three 

years of diminishing stipend and continued supervision to help the young 

lawyers establish their practice in southern communities where there is an 

acute shortage of black lawyers. 

The Rockefeller Foundation grant, amounting to $300,000, will be used 

for the postgraduate fellowship program during the next three years. To date, 

71 fellowships have been awarded. 

The Earl Warren Legal Training Program was launched in 1970, 

developing as an outgrowth of an earlier Legal Defense Fund program established 

in 1963 with initial funding from the Field Foundation. 

Referring to what he termed a pioneering effort by the Legal Defense 

Fund, supported by foundations, corporations and individuals, Mr. Greenberg 

said, "We were concerned that the hard-won civil rights laws of the 1960's 

would remain abstract concepts. Law is an abstraction until it is made available 

to people -- and for the black community that means black lawyers who can help 

give concrete reality to the law's generality. The Earl Warren Legal Training 

Program exemplifies the gains that have been made in this area in a very short 

time." 

The nature of these gains was documented in a report commissioned by 

the Carnegie Corporation. The study, A Step Toward Equal Justice, evaluates 

five years of participation by Carnegie and the Ford Foundation in the Legal 

Defense Fund's legal training program between 1969-73. 

The study reveals that there are 375 black students currently enrolled 

in 17 predominantly white Southern law schools. Nearly three-quarters of these are 

Earl Warren scholars. 

(more) 



The report also notes that an attrition rate of 30 per cent in 1963 

declined to 10 per cent in 1971. There is some evidence, a Carnegie Program 

Officer suggests, that the final figure is lower since many dropouts have been 

readmitted or appear to have transferred to other law schools. 

Black law school graduates, moreover, sharply increased under the aegis 

of the Earl Warren program. Two Hundred twenty-nine graduates, most in the last 

two years, were Warren scholars. 

Considered among the most significant and successful by-products of the 

program is the high percentage of black law school graduates from northern and 

southern law schools who are practicing in the South. These men and women, 

the report notes, increasingly are providing leadership roles in their 

communities. 

Of the 39 fellowships awarded since 1970, 12 fellows are currently 

in the first year of their internship and 25 have already begun law practice 

in southern areas where black citizens previously had little or no legal 

representation. Among former fellows are the Mayor of an Alabama town, a 

state legislator in Arkansas, a municipal judge in Houston. 

From 1969 to 1973, a total of $3,764,214 was contributed to the program 

by 74 corporations and the following foundations: 

Carnegie Corporation S & H Foundation 
Ford Foundation General Service Foundation 
Field Foundation Columbus Foundation 
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Cabot Charitable Trust 
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Werthan Foundation 
Fleischmann Foundation Hoyt Foundation 

Henry Ford II Fund Vingo Trust 

Schumann Foundation Hofheimer Foundation 
New York Community Trust Gebbie Foundation 
Merrill Trust Fred Harris Daniels Foundation 
Butler Trust for Charity Division Fund 

Sunnen Foundation 

(more) 



anes 

Today's announced grants bring the total amount contributed to the 

legal training program to $5,024,464 since 1969. 

The President of the Earl Warren Legal Training Program is William T. 

Coleman, Jr. of Philadelphia, Pa., and the Vice President is Louis H. Pollak 

of New Haven, Conn. 

Members of the Executive Committee include: Jean K. Benjamin, 

Ramsey Clark, Adrian W. DeWind, Walter Gellhorn and Chauncey L. Waddell of 

New York City; Julius L. Chambers, Charlotte, N.C.; Marian Wright Edelman, 

Cambridge, Mass.; Clifford L. Alexander, Jr., Patricia Roberts Harris, 

James M, Nabrit, Jr., Washington, D.C.; and Judge William H. Hastie and 

Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Vr THE MADISON 

N.A.A.C.P. LEGAL DEFENCE FUND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17,1974 

PRESS CONFERENCE 

150/2&) GUESTS 
EXECUTIVE CHAMDSR NO. LULU 

MRS, COATES IN CHARGE 
PRESS CONFERENCE; 11:00-2:00 

PRICES: 
ROOM RENTAL CHARGE: $100.00 

ADDITIONAL ITEMS AND ARRANGEMENTS 

GRATUITIES: Added to the account 174% on Food and Beverages 

D,.C.TAX: Added to the account 6% on Food and Beverages 

SEATING: Theater style, Podium with Mike 

BILL TO: . N.A.A.C.P. LEGAL DEFENCE FUND 

Attention: Mrs. Coates 

1028 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. 

Washington, D.C, 20036 

Phone; 833-41898 

CF/pm 
4/8/74 

* 
NOTE: No food or beverages will be required for this press conference. 

Please have pitchers of water and glasses available. Thank you. 

A. Centis 



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