LDF to Focus on Problems of the Inner City in '68

    83 

Hon. Francis E. Rivers 
REE AGH BLASS Y= Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg 

a, “1 PRESS 
legal t.efenseL__und 

Director, Public Relations 
NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. sJeee Devers ie” 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6.8397 nick wumoER 212.149.8487 4 

FEBRUARY, 1968 

TO: New England Committee of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational -Fund, Inc. : 

FROM: Jack Greenberg, Director-Counsel 

- LD TO FOCUS ON PROBL 
OF THE INNER CITY IN 

During 1968 the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. 
(LDF)'s staff of 25 full-time lawyers working with 250 cooperating 
counsel will expend their legal energies in an increased attack on 
problems of the Inrex City. é 

2 This program, which is well underway, is focusing on some of the 
northern urban centers, 

This program has two basic premises: e ' | 
*- that the poor should enjoy the same legal riohts as anyone else 
* and that the state and local governments shuld not ‘make arbit- 

rary distinctions in providing welfare, housing and other pub- 
lic services, 

Much of this national activity has been made ble by a one 
million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation--~1: sc in civil rights 
history---to the LDF for establishment of the Na nal Office for the 
Rights of the Indigent (NORI), 

\ 
The LDF has brought actions in the courts and before administra- 

tive agencies dealing with rights to counsel and to bail, protection 
from arbitrary evictions and from capricicus or discriminatory applica- 

_tion of welfare regulations, and other fundamental guarentees, 
These issues are legally undeveloped, 

As with civil rights in the 1930's, when the LDF was founded, pre- 
cedent must be made upon sound legal foundation. 

This increases the importance of planning and nationwide coordina- 
tion of the efforts of the private attorneys, legal aid societies, law i 
schools, and governnent-sponsored neighborhood law offices, . : 

Garnishment of weges for failure to pay for decete which are often 
overpriced and of inferior quality, is a perennial problem which 
plagues the ghetto resident? We are making the first major test of the 
legality of procedures under a garnishment law which exists in approxi- s 



Ete ee 

mately 20 states in the Supreme Court of the United States. 

In a Milwaukee, Wesconsin case, we -are-attacking a law which per=——— a 

mits a creditor to stop 50% of the wages of an employee simply cue pay- 

ing a three dollar fee and serving papers on the “employer. 

The employee has absolutely no way in which he can get court pro- 

ceeding to show that the withholding of his wages is improper, until 

-the trial on the creditor's main claim against the-debtoris-concluded,—- 

This is usually some five or six months later. 

We are Beeeerine that such a procedure violates the Constitution 

since every man ought to have a right to his day in court before his 

property is taken away from him. : 

The garnishment case is illustrative of a whole range of harsh _ 

means for seizing what has recently been characterized as the "new 

property" of the poor -- welfare benefits, tenure in public housing, 

and the like. From our national perspective, we are uncovering a com- 

mon theme -- namely that welfare benefits, tenancy in public housing, 

and attendance of public schools can be summarily snatched from the 

poor without giving them an opportunity to be heard;-especially with-—_— 

the assistance of an attorney. | ; : 13 

We Taye one case in Mississippi and are assisting attorneys in 

San Francisco in a similar case in an effort to stop welfare departments 

from terminating grants prior to giving recipients an explanation -- 

and an opportunity to object. ee i aia rope Be Mec eh pl Ons Ea 

é We are teking, for the second time, a case to the ‘Supreme Court of 

the United States which asserts that public Roterne authorities” should 

not be able to put poor people in the streét until they, £009. have had __ 

some hearing to oppose the eviction. 

In New York City we will shortly take to the Supreme Court_of the 

United States the case involving the right of a ‘lawyer from a legal 

aid society to be present at a conference between school officials and 

the parent “which could result in the assignment of a student to gical 

for incorrigible and emotionally disturbed children. i 

While we have been concerned with the feixness of garnishment pro- 

cedures, the fundamental problem lies in the fraudulent consumer prac- 



ssoae « was 

tices which occur before poor persons are dunned for collection. 

We have instituted a program to oppose many consumer fraud prac- 

tices in New York City. We are pushing the premise that the courts 

can void contracts which are oppressive and unfair, even though the ~ 

buyer may have, through his lack of information, voluntarily signed the 

contract. ‘ i 

We also have a number of cases dealing with one of the most abused 

of the poor -- the illegitimate child. 

We are opposing, in one case, the attempt of the state to take 

nine children away from three mothers solely on the ground that the 

children were born out of wedlock. We have filed a friend-of-the-court 

brief in another case in which the state refuses to let an illegitimate 

child sue for the wrongful killing of his mother although it permits 

all legitimate children to sue. : 

While the LDF has traditionally worked through private practi 

tioners in the south, we now, through NORI, have established a formal 

“agreement to work cooperatively with some of the new federal programs 

to give legal services to the poor in troubled cities such as San 

Francisco, California; St. Louis, Missouri; Cleveland, Ohio; and Wil- 

mington, Delaware. We are also giving assistance to other legal aid 

societies and private attorneys on particular cases affecting indigents 

in New York City, Hartford, Connecticut and. Newark, New Jersey. 

The six month old Chicago Legal Services Project, assisted by some 

50 jocal volunteer attorneys, has addressed itself to local prob- 

lems. The LDF nae provided consultation on legal eereete ys legal re- 

search and office and staff maintenance. 

The Project is now assisting ten community Crganizavions through- 

: out that city. . es oni ae 

It has assisted in negotiating nine collective bargaining agra 5 

ments between landlords and ecuants on the West ee of =chicade and in 

Harvey, Illinois. Thiough. these agreements, one community group in 

Lawndale is working with the Maremont Foundation to develop condo- 

minium and cooperative housing in slum areas. 

Elsewhere, the LDF has given assistance to California Rural Legal 



ay ae 

Assistance, Inc., 90% of whose clients are Mexican Americans, and, we 

will shortly institute cooperative relations with legal aid societies 

servicing Indian reservations. 

Hence, these programs are not limited to aiding Negroes. They 

seek to assist all ethnic and social groups which find themselves 

grappling with legal problems associated with poverty. 

eu G0=5