Legal Defense Fund to Honor Mississippi Rights Lawyers

Press Release
June 22, 1964

Legal Defense Fund to Honor Mississippi Rights Lawyers preview

Cite this item

  • Press Releases, Volume 1. Legal Defense Fund to Honor Mississippi Rights Lawyers, 1964. 469759f8-b492-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/e2257870-22bb-475b-a10e-4140e27944fa/legal-defense-fund-to-honor-mississippi-rights-lawyers. Accessed July 01, 2025.

    Copied!

    10 Columbus Circle 
New York, N.Y. 10019 
JUdson 6-8397 

—. —- NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE GPSS 
"De Allaa Scnight Chalmers June 22), 1964 
Director-Counsel °F 

Jack Greenberg q 
Associate Counsel 

Constance Baker Motley 

PER: Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information 
DuPont Plaza Hotel, Wjashington, D.C, 

HU 3-6000 

al
 

na
h?
 

LEGAL DEF 
IP. 

ENSE FUND TO HONOR 
MISS ISSIPP I 'RIGHTS LAWYERS 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The only three lawyers handling civil rights 
cases in the entire state of Mississippi will jointly receive the. 
first annual "Lawyer of the Year" award from the NAACP Legal 
Defense Fund at a luncheon here today. 

R. Jess Brown, Carsie A. Hall and Jack H. Young, all of 
Jackson, will each be given $1000.00 in credit with a law book 
publisher in recognition of their work for civil rights "above and 
beyond the call of duty." In addition, each will receive a plaque. 

Jack Greenberg, director-counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, 
which last month celebrated its 25th anniversary, hailed the trio 
of cooperating attorneys for its "unceasing efforts, in the face 
of considerable harassment, to bring equal justice under law to 
the Negroes of Mississippi." 

Founded by the NAACP in 1939, the Fund is now a separate 
organization with its own staff, board of directors and income. 
It works closely with the NAACP and all the other major civil 
rights groups. 

Messrs. Brown, Hall and Young have collaborated with the 
‘Defense Fund's permanent staff in numerous notable legal 

tories, including the defense of more than 1500 peaceful dem- 
Tators--among them James Farmer and 28 other Freedom Riders 

whose appeal went last week to the U.S, Supreme Court. 

Other triumphs include the admission of James Meredith to 
the University of Mississippi; the reversal of several convic- 
tions in cases where condemned Negro defendants were denied due 
process of law; the desegregation of terminal facilities in 
Jackson; the first public school desegregation in Mississippi; 
and the defense of members of CORE, SNCC and the NAACP arrested 
in sit-ins. 5 

The work of the Mississippi trio dramatizes the dire shortage 
of civil rights attorneys throughout the south. The Fund present- 
ly maintains a staff of 16 full time attorneys and 120 cooperat- 
ing attorneys, plus its temporary augmented summer staff. ae 

) ~Presenting the award to Messrs. Brown, Hall and Young will 
ybe Judge William H, Hastie of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
Third Circuit. Also speaking at the noon affair in the Statler 
Hilton's Federal Room will be Director-Counsel Greenberg. 

= 80 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The luncheon will be held at the Statler Hilton 
Hotel, 12:00 Noon to 2:00 PM, Accommodations 
are available for working press. 

Jesse DeVore, Jr., Director of Public Information—Night Number 212 Riverside 9-8487 Ss

Copyright notice

© NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

This collection and the tools to navigate it (the “Collection”) are available to the public for general educational and research purposes, as well as to preserve and contextualize the history of the content and materials it contains (the “Materials”). Like other archival collections, such as those found in libraries, LDF owns the physical source Materials that have been digitized for the Collection; however, LDF does not own the underlying copyright or other rights in all items and there are limits on how you can use the Materials. By accessing and using the Material, you acknowledge your agreement to the Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Materials.


Additional info

To the extent that LDF includes information about the Materials’ origins or ownership or provides summaries or transcripts of original source Materials, LDF does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of such information, transcripts or summaries, and shall not be responsible for any inaccuracies.

Return to top