Jack Greenberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of theNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund | |
| In office 1961–1984 | |
| Preceded by | Thurgood Marshall |
| Succeeded by | Julius L. Chambers |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1924-12-22)December 22, 1924 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 12, 2016(2016-10-12) (aged 91) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Relatives | Daniel S. Greenberg (brother) |
| Education | Columbia University (BA,LLB) |
| Awards | Presidential Citizens Medal |
Jack Greenberg (December 22, 1924 – October 12, 2016) was an American attorney and legal scholar. He was the Director-Counsel of theNAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1961 to 1984, succeedingThurgood Marshall.[1] He was involved in numerous crucial cases, includingBrown v. Board of Education, which ended segregation in public schools.[1][2] In all, he argued 40civil rights cases before theU.S. Supreme Court, and won almost all of them.[3]
He was Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Professor of Law Emeritus atColumbia Law School,[4] and had previously served as dean ofColumbia College and vice dean of Columbia Law School.[5] He died on October 12, 2016.[6]
Greenberg was born into aJewish family inBrooklyn, New York on December 22, 1924.[7][8][9] His brother was science journalistDaniel S. Greenberg.[10]
DuringWorld War II, Greenberg served in theUnited States Navy and fought atOkinawa andIwo Jima.[11] Greenberg commanded alanding craft in the invasion of Iheya Jima, one of the final campaigns of the war.[12] During his service, he was disturbed by racial prejudice he perceived in the Navy, and was threatened with a court martial for shouting at a superior officer in defense of a black crewman that he felt was being mistreated.[13]
After an interruption due to his war service Greenberg graduated fromColumbia College with aB.A. in 1945. He further received anLL.B. fromColumbia Law School in 1948, and anLL.D. (an honorary degree) from Columbia Law in 1984.[4][14]
Greenberg became the only white legal counselor for theNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund ("LDF") in 1949, and, in 1961, succeededThurgood Marshall as LDF's Director-Counsel.[15]
Greenberg recalled his earliest arguments before the Supreme Court, saying:
It was like a religious experience; the first few times I was there I was full of awe. I had an almost tactile feeling. The first time I was in the Court, I wasn't arguing. I felt as if I were in a synagogue, and reached to see whether or not I had ayarmulke on. I thought I ought to have one on.[16]
In perhaps his greatest stride, Greenberg arguedBrown v. Board of Education in 1954 before the Supreme Court as co-counsel with Thurgood Marshall.Brown declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional. InBrown, Greenberg found social scientists and other authorities from the fields of psychology and sociology who addressed the detrimental effects forced segregation could have on young public school students.[15][17]
In 1962, Greenberg arguedMeredith v. Fair, a case which became a first step in integrating the University of Mississippi by allowing the enrollment of student James Meredith.[18]
Other civil rights cases Greenberg argued includeAlexander v. Holmes County Board of Education in 1969, which ordered the end of segregated school systems "at once", andGriggs v. Duke Power Company in 1971,[19] which outlawed basing employment and promotion decisions on the results of tests with a discriminatory impact.[15]
In 1972, he arguedFurman v. Georgia (1972),[20][21] in which the Court held that the death penalty as it was then applied was a violation of the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of theEighth Amendment.
Greenberg was a founding member of theMexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and ofHuman Rights Watch.[22][23]
Greenberg was an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School from 1970 to 1984, a visiting lecturer atYale Law School in 1971, and a visiting professor atCollege of the City of New York in 1977.
In 1982, he was appointed to co-teachJulius L. Chambers' class on race law atHarvard Law School. The university declined to replace Greenberg with a black professor, so black students boycotted the class.[24] When asked if he was frightened to pass through a group of protesters on his way to class the first day, Greenberg said, "No, I was on the beach at Iwo Jima."[25]
Greenberg left LDF in 1984 to become a professor and Vice Dean atColumbia Law School. He served as Dean ofColumbia College from 1989 to 1993.[4] Greenberg's teaching interests includedconstitutional law, civil rights, andhuman rights law,civil procedure, "Kafka and the Law", and South Africa's post-apartheid constitution. As of fall 2013, Greenberg still taught at Columbia Law School, and served as a senior director of LDF.
He was also a distinguished visiting professor atUniversity of Tokyo Faculty of Law in 1993-94 and atSt. Louis University Law School in 1994, and a visiting professor atLewis and Clark Law School in 1994 and 1996, atPrinceton University in 1995, at theUniversity of Munich in 1998, atTokyo University in 1996 and 1998, at the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen in 1999–2000, and atHebrew University in 2005.
Greenberg had varied intellectual interests: aside from several books on law and civil rights, includingCrusaders in the Courts,[26] he wrote a cookbook (Dean Cuisine,[27] withHarvard Law School DeanJames Vorenberg), and appeared as a panelist for aNew York Times tasting ofOregonpinot noir. He also editedFranz Kafka: The Office Writings (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008) with two other scholars.[28]
Jack Greenberg naacp jewish.
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Dean of Columbia College 1989–93 | Succeeded by |
