- Person
- Jack Greenberg
- Lived
- 1924–2016
- Field
- Civil rights law
- From
- American
The story
Fifteen years after Brown v. Board of Education, most Southern school districts were still segregated. In 1955 the Supreme Court had ordered desegregation with all deliberate speed, a formula Justice Felix Frankfurter had insisted on, and many school boards stressed the word deliberate over speed. Some places closed public schools rather than integrate them. In 1968, in a Legal Defense Fund case, the Court condemned so-called freedom of choice plans, but delays continued.
In the summer of 1969 a federal appeals court asked the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to draw up desegregation plans for 33 Mississippi school districts, including Holmes County, in time for the new school year. At the last minute, the department and the Justice Department asked for more time. It was the first time the federal government had supported a desegregation delay in court, and the appeals court agreed. The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund turned to Justice Hugo Black, who reluctantly let the delay stand but invited the Fund to bring the case to the full Supreme Court as quickly as possible.
Jack Greenberg, the Fund's Director-Counsel, represented Beatrice Alexander and the other parents. He asked the Court to put the original plans into effect and to make desegregation, not delay, the main aim. The justices were divided, but Black pressed for a short, simple order. On 29 October 1969 the Court issued a two-page unsigned opinion declaring that every school district was obliged to end dual school systems at once and to operate only unitary schools from then on. The era of all deliberate speed was over.
Greenberg had been the youngest member of the legal team that won Brown in 1954, gathering evidence from psychologists and sociologists on the harm segregation did to children. With Alexander he helped make Brown's promise enforceable. Under his leadership the Fund also pursued cases on busing as a means of integrating schools, including Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg in 1971, in which the Court upheld busing to desegregate.
The Legal Defense Fund counts the end of all deliberate speed among the great achievements of Greenberg's years as its leader. Alexander forced districts across the South to integrate their schools without further postponement.
Why it matters
The ruling ended the era of delay and forced school districts across the South to integrate without further postponement.
About Jack Greenberg
Youngest lawyer on the Brown v. Board of Education team, Thurgood Marshall’s successor at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and advocate in forty Supreme Court cases.
More about Jack Greenberg
- Jack Greenberg argued 40 civil rights cases in top courtAt 27, Jack Greenberg was the youngest lawyer on the team that won Brown v. Board of Education; he went on to argue 40 civil rights cases before the Supreme Court.
- Jack Greenberg chronicled the civil rights legal revolutionJack Greenberg's book Crusaders in the Courts tells how a dedicated band of lawyers fought the civil rights revolution, and is regarded as the definitive history of the Legal Defense Fund.
- Jack Greenberg won Furman v. Georgia in 1972Jack Greenberg argued Furman v. Georgia (1972), in which the Supreme Court held that the death penalty as then applied was cruel and unusual punishment.
- Jack Greenberg won Griggs v. Duke Power on fair hiringIn Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971), Jack Greenberg's Legal Defense Fund won a ruling barring employers from relying on tests with a discriminatory impact.
- Martin Luther King Jr. called on Jack Greenberg's lawyersIn 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. asked Jack Greenberg and the Legal Defense Fund to handle all demonstration cases involving the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
- Jack Greenberg's case opened Ole Miss to James MeredithJack Greenberg argued Meredith v. Fair, the case that led to James Meredith's admission to the University of Mississippi, a first step in integrating the university.
- Navy officer Jack Greenberg stood up for a Black sailorServing in the US Navy in World War II, Jack Greenberg risked a court-martial by shouting at a superior officer in defense of a Black crewman he felt was mistreated.
- Jack Greenberg took civil rights law to the worldJack Greenberg helped shape new legal defense funds for Asian American and Puerto Rican communities and joined human rights missions from South Africa to the Soviet Union.
Sources
- Jack Greenberg (lawyer) Wikipedia
- LDF Remembers Civil Rights Icon Jack Greenberg NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
- Felix Frankfurter Wikipedia
- Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.