Legal Defense Fund to Honor Mississippi Rights Lawyers
Press Release
June 22, 1964

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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 June 17, 2025.
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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