Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Origins: 1963–1973

During a June 21, 1963, meeting at the White House, in the midst of the American civil rights movement, President John F. Kennedy suggested the formation of a group of lawyers to counter and reduce racial tensions by way of volunteer citizen actions. On July 10, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law was publicly announced. The first co-chairs of the Committee were two well-known figures in the civil rights and legal fields, Bernard Segal and Harrison Tweed. Over a hundred lawyers volunteered to serve in the organization, with both white and black attorneys being represented. Membership also included five past presidents of the American Bar Association and four members of its board, as well as twelve current presidents of state bar associations, and officials from the NAACP and its legal defense fund. On August 9, 1963, the group officially registered as a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Its first executive director, David Stahl, was named in December 1963.

The group's first goal was to counter legal efforts to preserve segregation in Mississippi. The Mississippi office of the organization opened on June 14, 1965, with a mission of getting the bar to take on the professional responsibility for leading the American civil rights movement and providing legal services where they would otherwise be unavailable.

In 1967 and 1968, the Committee began providing assistance for human and civil rights problems in South Africa, litigating on behalf of the anti-apartheid movement and the Congressional Black Caucus within the United States. The Southern Africa Project continued for more than 30 years, up through the liberation of Namibia and the end of apartheid in South Africa with free and open elections in 1994.

The Committee began its Urban Areas Project after the 1968 assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. This project received financial support from private foundations to organize and staff local lawyers committees in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington. The committee initially focused on defensive issues, but eventually evolved to become affirmative in nature.

1973–1993

The Lawyers' Committee continued to engage in major public policy issues. Work included affirmative positions on the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1975, the 25-year extension of that Act in 1982, and on the Attorneys Fees Awards Act of 1976. In 1982, the Committee’s Lloyd Cutler represented the NAACP in Clairborne Hardware Co v. NAACP, a case where several businesses sued the NAACP and received a judgment that would have made the NAACP insolvent. Cutler argued and won the case in the U.S. Supreme Court, reversing the previous judgment.

Barbara Arnwine became the Executive Director in February 1989, succeeding Bill Robinson. The Committee added separate Fair and Affordable Housing and Environmental Justice Projects. The Southern Africa Project was created to aid the evolution to majority rule in Namibia and South Africa. The project endorsed the "Free South Africa Movement", funding legal assistance for the defense of political prisoners in southern Africa, supporting lawyers challenging apartheid laws and rent and housing cases, representing of rent-boycotters in the townships, and helping bring awareness to policymakers in the United States about human rights issues in the South African area.

The Committee challenged Mississippi congressional districts in Brooks v. Winter, which helped Mike Espy to become the first black congressmen from Mississippi in 100 years; it also challenged municipal and county redistricting in Greenville, Jackson, Mississippi; Annapolis, Maryland; and Petersburg, Virginia. In Mississippi, the committee challenged at-large elections of state court judges in Martin v. Mabus, leading to the election of eight black judges.

1993–2003

In public policy, the Lawyers' Committee wrote President Bill Clinton recommending a "Second Call" to the bar to promote diversity. The Committee leadership helped developed a collaboration for a one-year effort to advance this cause, which was known as the Lawyers for One America Collaboration. The Committee also supported the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 ("Motor Voter"), hate crime legislation, and pushing for a better version of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. The Committee helped construct the framework for President Clinton's Executive Order on Environmental Justice.

Internationally, the Lawyers' Committee presented a seminal National Conference on African-American Women and the Law about the effects of discrimination of gender and race for women of color, and took part in the Non-Governmental Organization Forum in Beijing in August 1995.

The Committee represented the NAACP in litigation over discriminatory practices by the city of Leesburg, Florida, and the local hospital for minority communities in Pine Street, Carver Heights, and Mont Clair (Tri-City Branch NAACP v. City of Leesburg). The Committee received a consent decree that provided $7 million in funding to desegregate and redevelop Section 8 housing in Dade County, Florida (Adker v. HUD). The Committee also received $26 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds for desegregation and community building for seven African American communities in Pennsylvania (Sanders v. HUD).

The Committee's voting project protected against attack congressional districts and state senate districts on behalf of black citizens in Florida (Fouts v. Harris; Chandler v. Harris) and preserved voting districts of county commission and school board members in Dooley County, Georgia (Sanders v. Dooley County, Georgia). In employment law's Phillips v. Hooters of America case, the Committee obtained a circuit court ruling allowing a client to pursue a sexual harassment claim in federal court, and in Dowdell v. Ona Corp. and Brewer v. Miller Brewing Co. the Committee obtained $2.5 million and $2.7 million settlements, respectively, for racial harassment.

In education law, the Committee negotiated $300 million in state funding to engage reforms in Prince George's County, Maryland, in NAACP v. Prince George's County, Maryland Board of Education.

2003-present

In 2004, the Committee's amicus work in Tennessee v. Lane helped achieve a decision that confirmed a fundamental right of access to the courthouse and that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act was a valid exercise of Congress's power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment to abolish state immunity from suits that violated this right. The Lawyers' Committee main focus for 2004 was its Election Protection Program, a non-partisan coalition committed to protect the voting rights citizens on Election day through prompt solutions for voters experiencing problems and through grassroots efforts, education and outreach, and litigation. Over 25,000 volunteers participated and 8,000 legal volunteers worked as poll monitors and field attorneys were ready to provide immediate legal help. Thousands of reports of possible election inconsistencies were received and processed, which served as the foundation for several lawsuits against Ohio, Louisiana, and Florida.

The largest effort of 2005 was the response to the humanitarian crisis of Hurricane Katrina. The Lawyers' Committee, in partnership with the Mississippi Center for Justice, helped set up the legal aid groundwork necessary to help the thousands of displaced families to navigate the federal disaster relief bureaucracy and the property and insurance regulations. In addition to assistance provided directly to survivors, the Committee filed suit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (McWaters v. FEMA) to compel the agency to provide adequate relief services and to enjoin the application of rules that impeded families' ability to receive assistance.

In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, the Supreme Court held that it was unconstitutional for school districts to use race to assign students to schools to achieve racial integration absent sufficient support that it was necessary as a "last resort". Believing that the opinion of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision was threatened by these newer rulings, the Committee's Education Project created a formal response plan and raised funds to fund a staff attorney that would provide districts guidance to make race-conscious student assignment plans, offer litigation help to defend the plans, and provide public relations advice to raise public support to the plans.

Projects

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is structured around a number of projects that it operates on an ongoing basis: