Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Alternate Names: Southern Africa Project
Location: Washington, DC, United States
Duration: 1963 - current (Africa work 1967? - 1994)
Newsletter(s):
South Africa: The Countdown to Elections
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination in the United States. The Committee's major objective is to use the skills and resources of the bar to obtain equal opportunity for minorities by...
Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination in the United States. The Committee's major objective is to use the skills and resources of the bar to obtain equal opportunity for minorities by addressing factors that contribute to racial justice and economic opportunity. The Lawyers' Committee's primary focus is to represent the interest of African Americans in particular, other racial and ethnic minorities, and other victims of discrimination, where doing so can help to secure justice for all racial and ethnic minorities. In 1967 and 1968 the Committee began its work on South Africa much of which was done by Peter Connell was deputy director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In 1973 Douglas Wachholz was hired as the first director of the Africa Legal Assistance Project, the name of which was later changed to the Southern Africa Project (SAP). SAP financed and helped direct the defense of thousands of political prisoners in southern Africa, supported lawyers in their challenges to apartheid laws, and helped raise the consciousness of policymakers in the U.S. Congress and other branches of government about human rights issues in the region. SAP did work on to include Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). The directors of SAP were Douglas Wachholz (1973-1975), Michael Peay, Millard W. Arnold and Gay McDougall (1980-1994). Under the leadership of Gay McDougall, SAP also made a major contribution to the liberation of Namibia. SAP founded the Commission for Independence of Namibia, a bipartisan group of 31 distinguished Americans who monitored the yearlong, U.N.-mandated process leading to independence. (Source: Douglas Wachholz; Gay McDougall; the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law website including The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law 1963-2003 by Charles T. Lester, Jr.; and Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law documents on this website.)
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