Title: A National Legal Network: Organizing for Change; Black Lawyers and the Criminal Justice System
Abstract: A NATIONAL LEGAL NETWORK: ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE; BLACK LA WYERS AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM By LENNOX S. HINDS,* Associate Director-National Conference of Black Lawyers . THE NA TURE OF THE PROBLEM NATIONAL CONFERENCE of Black Lawyers is an organization that has grown out of the discontent and struggles of Black people and the need to provide legal support to their struggles against oppression. It was fashioned in 1970 by the most activist elements in the Black Bar to respond to the fermenting issues raised by Black, poor, and oppressed peoples throughout the country. Through its national office, local chapters, member attorneys and BALSA (Black American Law Student Associa- tion) members it has attempted to ar- ticulate, define, insulate, insure and defend the rights of Blacks and other powerless segments of this society and those seeking to effect social change through affirmative litigation, criminal defenses, monitoring governmental ac- tivity and providing technical assistance to members of the Black Bar nationally who are defending those in struggle. The ever-expanding nature of the task before us is revealed by a cursory examination of a partial list of the cases and issues in which NCBL has been in- volved since its inception: Angela Davis defense rE The binding and gagging of Bobby Seale in Chicago Cornell University students defense Challenges to the practices of the American Bar Association - Defense of the Soledad Brothers - Attack on the hiring practices of large metropolitan utilities companies • Defense of Black servicemen in a whole range of matters . Support of Black revolutionary Martin Sostre by way of amicus, attacking conditions and regulations of New York State prisons - Challenges to the illegal conduct by law enforcement officers of various states toward the Black Panther Party and its members ranging from arrests to murders. - The murder of Black youth under color of law in Augusta, Georgia; Jack- son, Mississippi; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. NCBL cooperating attorneys and law students are working on behalf of the beseiged student body of Southern University to insulate them from the lawlessness of state action and to fix blame for the ruthless murders of two students which are but another instance of the pattern and practice of the increasingly visible plan to suppress dis- sent in this country; are coordinating . Lennox S. Hinds is Associate Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. Prior to his appointment to NCBL, he directed the Prisoners Rights project (PROD) of the ACLU Foundation in New Jersey. A graduate of Rutgers Law School-Newark, he is a. former research chemist and pas.t executive director of the Heritage Foundation, Inc; a non-profit consultant firm providing technical assistance to community groups developing alter- nate educational, political, cultural and economic institutions. Past legal publications include: The Rutgers Story-The White Law School and the Black Liberation Struggle, in Lefcourt, Robert, Ed. Law Against the People, Random House, New York, 1972. Relevance of the Past to the Present in Life and Culture of Black People in the U.S., Goldstein, R. Ed. Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1971. Urban Law and the Urban Frontier, Monograph, Heritage Foundation Press, New Brunswick, (NJ.), 1970 Preparing LegalAdvocates of the Poor and Oppressed., Monograph, Heritage Foundation Press, New Brunswick, (N.J.), 1970.
Publication Year: 1973
Publication Date: 1973-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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