Massive Turnout for the 30th Anniversary LDF Institute on Creative Use of Law
Press Release
May 24, 1969

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Massive Turnout for the 30th Anniversary LDF Institute on Creative Use of Law, 1969. 1928b57c-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/ef30a845-b723-4e55-b89f-e19838ac9afc/massive-turnout-for-the-30th-anniversary-ldf-institute-on-creative-use-of-law. Accessed April 27, 2025.
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2% a8 President Hon. Francis E. Rivers PRESS RELEASE Director Connsel egal Btonae ‘and Jack Greenberg Director, Public Relations NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATJONAL FUND, INC. Jour DeVore. Je 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 » JUdson 6.8397 nusiey srosenmn 212-700.6469 FOR RELEASE SATURDAY May 24, 1969 MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR 30TH ANNIVERSARY LDF INSTITUTE ON CREATIVE USE OF LAW Evers, Kennedy, Jackson, Greenberg Were Speakers NEW YORK--~Some 2,000 persons participated here last week in the seven workshops and two luncheon meetings that made up the Institute on the "Law As A Creative Force For Black Advance." The Institute was sponsored by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF). The most impressive turnout was for Charles Evers, newly elected Mayor of Fayette, Miss., who told the 1,200 guests at his luncheon that “voting is the way to wrest the power from bigoted and racist whites." Mr. Evers, crediting LDF attorneys with "keeping me out of jail many times," discussed "The Politics of the New South." Other nationally noted participants of the LDF's 30th anniver- sary Institute included U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Mass. Senator Kennedy, speaking on student dissent, concluded that “it is up to the universities themselves to reverse the trend. Government cannot do it for them. The universities must take two steps: * they must recognize that they have serious shortcomings, and they must initiate accelerated reforms; * they must provide an alternative route toward change besides the confrontation politics of the militants." LDF Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg told the Institute partici- pants that "the law offers a way of achieving meaningful social progress, but that goal can be attained only by vigorous application" on the part of LDF attorneys and other lawyers dedicated to improving the plights of the minorities and the poor. Samuel C. Jackson, assistant secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, urged white participants in the Institute, “who live or work in the suburbs, to use whatever influence you may have to help open up those areas to people of low or moderate incomes." The Institute, w ich also marked the 15th anniversary of the LDF victory in the 1954 Supreme Court school integration ruling, was co-chaired by John Doar, recent president of the New York City Board of Education, and the Reverend M. Moran Weston, LDF National Board member. =30= NOTE: We enclose the Institute program for further details.