Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law records

Collection

Identifier: 1000-391

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was organized at the request of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and continues its work to this day. These records document the work of the organization, based in Washington D.C., from 1963-1971.

Dates

Creation: 1963-1971

Creator

Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

University records - Copyright held by Wesleyan University; all other copyright is retained by the creator - In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted

Biographical / Historical

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (LCCRUL) was organized by leaders of the national bar at the request of President John F. Kennedy in June 1963. President Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy urged the lawyers to use their training and influence to move the struggle for the protection of civil rights from the streets to the courts. Since that time its national office has been located in Washington, D.C.

This collection is part of Wesleyan’s Collection on Legal Change (CLC), the brainchild of Clement C. Vose; John E. Andrus Professor of Government. He established the CLC in 1970 and continued to add archival collections to it until his sudden death in 1985. The collections in the CLC all document efforts at legal reform and speak to professor Vose’s belief in the archival record and its critical importance in effecting lasting change.

Extent

48 Linear Feet (54 hollinger boxes and 21 paige boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Collection contains working documents for the Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights Under Law between the years of 1963-1971.

Arrangement

Collection is organized into 15 series:

History
Committees, 1963-1968
Funds
Relations with other organizations
LCCRUL correspondence
Internal committee business
Urban areas project
Mississippi, 1963-1969
Files of individuals
Special projects
Legislation, 1964-1968
Miscellaneous
Press coverage
Printed material and speeches
Notebooks

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Negotiations to have the closed files of the LCCRUL deposited in the Wesleyan University Collection on Legal Change were begun in 1969, completed late in 1971, and the first shipment of papers followed soon afterwards. Mary Lou Grad, Wesleyan 1972, assembled the first accession in Washington and brought the papers to Middletown.