Memorandum on $1,000,000 Grant from the Ford Foundation Over a 3-Year Period

    | 
iG 

President 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 

egal efense und Jack Greenberg 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. ae ano 
10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 save DEV ores Ie NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 

NOT FOR RELEASE BEFORE: November 22, 1966 

MEMORANDUM 

TO: New York Area Press 

RE: $1,000,000 GRANT FROM THE FORD FOUNDATION OVER A 3-YEAR PERIOD 

PER: Jesse DeVore, Director of Public Information 

In preparation for the Tuesday, November 22 announcement of a 

$1,000,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to the NAACP Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) for the establishment of a National 

Office for the Rights of the Indigent, we send this memorandum in an 

effort to headoff a mistake frequently made by well-intentioned 

journalists. 

We refer to the understandable confusion between the two or anizations, 

the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund LDF), These 

are separate, distinct, and individual organizations. 

The LDF was established as an independent organization by the NAACP in 

1939, The purpose was to raise tax-free monies for litigation and to 

remove the legal fight from routine organizational confinements. 

Since 1939 the LDF has grown and now serves as the legal 

arm of the entire civil rights movement. Today our attorneys repre- 

sent all of the major civil rights groups and any individual with a 

bonafide civil rights claim. 

Our correct designation is the "NAACP Legal Defense and Educational 

Fund, Inc.," but since this is admittedly long, we shortened it to the 

TNAACP Legal Defense Fund" or to “LDE." 

WHAT HAS THE LDF DONE? 

For the past 27 years the LDF has led the long struggle to secure full 

constitutional rights for every Negro through process of law. Hence, 

the LDF has been responsible for the major breakthroughs in the courts, 

breakthroughs which have paved the way for historic advances, includir 

the 1954 decision of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segre- 

gation in public schools. 

The Director-Counsel of the LDF is Jack Greenberg, successor to 

Thurgood Marshall, now Solicitor General of the United States. He 

heads a staff of 20 New York based lawyers who work with more than 20C 

cooperating attorneys stationed across the country. This staff is 

currently handling more than 400 separate cases and representing more 

than 13,000 individuals. 

TODAY THE LDF... 

* represents, through 177 lawsuits in 13 states, the interests of two 

million Negro children in the South still confined to inferior, 

segregated schools--the same poor-quality education that has made 

economic outcasts of their parents. 

is suing for reinstatement of hundreds of Southern Negro teachers 

arbitrarily dismissed following partial school desegregation, The 

LDF has already won reinstatement for teachers in Arkansas, North 

Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. 

(more) 
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challenges discriminatory practices against Negro patients or physi- 
cians in federally financed hospitals. Negroes are often placed in 
hallways to make room for whites, relegated to antiquated facilities, 
abused by hospital personnel, 

represents Negroes denied jobs or promotion solely because of their 
race, Defendants are companies, trade unions, and employment agen- 
cies charged with virlating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 
1964, No attempt to enforce this law in the courts exists apart 
from suits filed by the LDF, 

* defends members of civil rights organizations and unaffiliated 
individuals who have been unfairly arrested in peaceful and consti- 
tutional protest actions against segregation and discrimination, a 
total of more than 20,000 individuals in the past five years. 

LDF INCOME 

The income of the LDF is reflective of the organization's increased 
program in recent years. That budget in 1963 was $750,000; in 1964 
$1,400,000; and in 1965 it was $1,716,000. The projected budget for 
1966 is $2,000,000, Hence, the financial implications of the Ford 
grant of $1,000,000, which is allocated for use over a three-year 
period, can be clearly seen, 

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