Julius Chambers in New York

Chapter 3 describes Chambers's two years in New York 1962-1964, the first at Columbia Law School and the second as the first-ever civil rights intern at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund ("LDF"). Earlier the LDF, under the leadership of Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall, pioneered systematic strategic litigation for social change and led the legal campaign that culminated in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which signalled the beginning of the end of state-sponsored apartheid in the American South. In 1963 LDF director-counsel Jack Greenberg selected Chambers as the first intern for a new program designed to offer prospective civil rights attorneys front-line experience at LDF headquarters in New York City plus three years of subsequent modest funding to support the establishment of new Southern law practices as allies in civil rights litigation. Chambers found the year at LDF exhilarating. Working with LDF's highly-motivated and exceptionally talented staff attorneys, Chambers traveled the South to assist with LDF cases, gaining experience and a clear vision of his professional future.