Michael Meltsner Oral History
Michael Meltsner joined LDF in 1961 after graduating from Yale Law School. He laid the foundation for Title VI of the Civil Rights Act when he won Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital, which established that health facilities receiving government funding could not adhere to “separate but equal” provisions. In addition to winning historic capital punishment cases and serving as the Co-Director of LDF’s National Office for the Rights of the Indigent, he famously represented Muhammad Ali in Muhammad Ali v. Division of State Athletic Commission to restore Ali’s unjustly revoked boxing license. After leaving LDF, he became a professor at Columbia Law School and later Dean of Northeastern University School of Law.
Highlighted excerpt:
Michael Meltsner reflects on preparing to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court
Cite this item:
Michael Meltsner interview for the Legal Defense Fund Oral History Project. Interviewed by Seth Kotch on September 15, 2023 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Conducted in collaboration with the Southern Oral History Program at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
