- Person
- Jack Greenberg
- Lived
- 1924–2016
- Field
- Civil rights law
- From
- American
The story
James Meredith, born in Mississippi in 1933, served in the US Air Force from 1951 to 1960. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, he applied in 1961 to the University of Mississippi, which still admitted only white students, seven years after Brown v. Board of Education. He was twice turned down. Medgar Evers, head of the state NAACP, advised him.
On 31 May 1961, with the backing of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Meredith sued in federal court, arguing that he had been rejected only because of his race. Constance Baker Motley represented him through many hearings. Jack Greenberg, who had succeeded Thurgood Marshall as the Fund's Director-Counsel in 1961, argued Meredith v. Fair, the case that won Meredith the right to enroll. The federal appeals court for the Fifth Circuit ruled that he must be admitted, and the Supreme Court supported its decision when the state appealed.
Mississippi resisted. Governor Ross Barnett vowed that no school would be integrated while he was governor and personally blocked Meredith's registration, and the appeals court found him in contempt. Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent federal marshals to protect Meredith, and when a riot broke out on the campus, federal troops were sent to restore order. On 1 October 1962 Meredith became the first African American student to enroll at the university.
He endured harassment and isolation, but persisted and graduated on 18 August 1963 with a degree in political science. His admission is regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States.
Greenberg had joined the Fund in 1949 as a 24-year-old graduate of Columbia Law School, answering Marshall's search for an assistant to challenge Jim Crow laws. He led the organisation for 23 years, the longest tenure in its history, and argued forty cases before the Supreme Court, winning almost all of them.
Why it matters
Meredith's admission broke the color line at one of the South's flagship universities and opened the way for other Black students to follow.
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 won the order to desegregate schools at onceIn Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education (1969), Jack Greenberg won a Supreme Court order that segregated school systems must end at once.
- 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.
- 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
- James Meredith Wikipedia
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