Melvyn Zarr Oral History

Born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, Melvyn Zarr joined the ranks of LDF after receiving his law degree from Harvard in 1963. He worked out of LDF’s Jackson, Mississippi, office, where he provided legal assistance to the Grenada County Freedom Movement and was counsel to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. His work with LDF took him all the way to the Supreme Court, where he successfully defended a 14-year-old Black boy who was accused of raping an elderly white woman. He later served as a U.S. magistrate judge and taught at the University of Maine School of Law.