NAACP Legal Defense Fund Confers in New York City

    10 Columbus Circle y, 7 \ 
New York, N.Y. 10019 (1 
JUdson 6-8397 : 

NAACP 

Legal Defense and Educational Fund 
PRESS RELEASE : is 
President —_ a 

Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers 

Director-Counsel 

Jack Greenberg FOR RELEASE 

Monday, ¥ 
May 24, 1965 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Pingg 
CONFERS IN NBW YORK CITY 3 

en 
NEW YORK---A comprehensive plan to expand the legal thrust of 

the civil rights movement was unveiled here this week by Jack = 
: 

Greenberg, director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fundy Inc. 

series of discussions entitled "New Frontiers of the Law" 

sponsored by the Fund. 

Glaring inadequacies in enforcement of the 1964 Civil Rights 

Act were cited by Mr. Greenberg as he spelled out: the Funds new 

attack on discrimination in housing, education, employment, hos- 

pitals: and criminal justice (capital punishment) particularly in 

the, South. ; 

: Other speakers at the day-long meetings, held at New York 

City's ?Americana and Hilton hotels, repeated the theme that direct 

action, backed by litigation is a crucial combination. 

ie These speakers included Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, who chaired the 

meetings; Judge Francis E, Rivers, president of the Legal Defense 

Fund, Mrs. Amelia P. Boynton, founder of the Dallas County Voter 

League, of Selma,. Alabama; Author Ralph Ellison, and Manhattan 

Borough President Constance Baker Motley. 

Also Dean-elect Louis H. Pollak of the Yale Law School; 

Wiley A. Branton, Executive Secretary of the President's Council 

on Equal Opportunity, Mr. Greenberg and Grenville Clark, 86-year old 

constitutional lawyer and former adviser to Secretary of War Henry 

L. Stimson. 

(more) 

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



NAACP Legal Defense Fund -2- i init May 24 1965 
Confers. in New York City 2 i Mique s 

ey ‘ ni 

Moz Clark, wieites “Renored at the closing dinner meeting, 

called Mpen New Yorkersto contribute “at least" $1 million a year, 

to the massive work of the rapidly expanding Legal Defense Fund, 

over the next ten years. 

/On his initiative, subscriptions for the period 1965-69 now 

amount to over $500,000 annually, or about one-fourth of the 

projet ted Legal Defense Fund minimum budgets for those years. 

. Clark received a standing ovation after he urg=d a change 

in American values that would place contributions to the civil 

rights cause on a par with donations to museums, universities, and 

hospitals. 

And in special messages 'rights leaders Roy Wilkins of the 

NAACP, James Farmer of CORE, and John Lewis of SNCC echoed the 

sentiments of Rev, Dr, Martin Luther King who said he was “confident 

that the Legal Defense Fund will continue its tireless, creative 

work for equal justice under law for every American citizen." 

Established by the NAACP in 1939 as a separate, independent 

civil rights legal agency, the Fund now represents all the major 

civil fights organizations. 

In the opening luncheon meeting, Mrs. Boynton recounted her 

30 jeads of freedom fighting in Selma, culminating with her 

brufalize tion by Sheriff Clark, She told the audience of the 

economic. reprisals visited upon Selma Negroes since the time of 

the recent demonstrations, i 

H Over 200 have lost their jobs, Mrs. Boynton said. But her 

y once Clear how far the struggle had come since the days when 

Selma citizens were afraid to even meet to discuss the possibility 

of exercising their right to vote. 

Mc® Ellison, author of Invisible Man and one-time resident of 

Alabama, praised the courage of Mrs. Boynton and her fellow citizens 

for leading the way to a new national consciousness of the need 

to remedy age“old” injustices. 
Fo em vind 

(more) 



P LEGAL DEFENSE FUND Pas: 2% May 24, 1965 
oe IN NEW YORK CITY 

In afternoon speeches Dean Pollak, Mrs. Motley, and Mr. 

Branton discussed the triumphs and trials of civil rights lawyers 

from different points of view. 

| Himself a member of the Legal Defense Fund board of directors, 

Mr. Pollak reviewed the eleven years since the 1954 school 

desegregation decision. He recalled how in 1954 many people 

thought the race problem had finally been solved, and chided those j 

who expressed the same opinion about the 1964 Civil Rights Act. ‘ 

Mr. Pollak then detailed the growing involvement of youth and? 

the church in the civil rights movement, and stressed that the { 

interplay of demonstrations and legal initiatives would continue to 

lead the way. 

Mrs. Motley who has taken leave of absence as the Legal 

Defense Fund's associate counsel to assume Manhattan's borough 

presidency, told the audience of her first forays into a Mississippi 

courtroom, when in 1949 "the whole town of Jackson" came to stare 

at "the Negro lawyer." 

And) Mr. Branton, who brought the suit that led to the 

dramatic desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School, 

discussed the problems of the local Southern attorneys who work 

with the Legal Defense Fund on civil rights cases. 

The Arkansas attorney pointed out that Southern lawyers--the 

Legei@tetsnse Fund has 120 cooperating counsel across the South-- 

receive threatening phone calls and more important, often find 

judwemeana juries prejudiced against them in cases having no 

connection with civil rights. 

Noting that the attorney who handles civil rights problems thus 

may suffer personal and financial damages, Mr. Branton added that 

he believed the gains to outweigh the losses, 

=G0e 2.