Highlights from the 20th Century
1930s
The Guild was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the conservative and racially segregated American Bar Association. NLG actively supported the legislation of the New Deal, helping to win many advances for unemployed and working people.----On December 1, 1936, a group of lawyers met at the City Club in New York to discuss the formation of a, progressive, multi-racial bar association. Two months later the National Lawyers Guild was founded as an alternative to the all-white, anti-labor, and anti-New Deal American Bar Association. Today, the Guild has member in chapters throughout the United States.
1940s
NLG aided workers in union organizing campaigns, opposed racial discrimination, fought against the poll tax, and investigated race riots. Following World War 11, Guild members participated in the Nuremberg trials and the founding of the United Nations.---===---The National Lawyers Guild was influential in shaping the socal legislation the characterized the New Deal era. We argued in courts and before legislative committees that Congress had the power to enact legislation concerning labor relations, child labor, social security, and rent control. The Guild defended workers and their trade unions. Guild attorneys fought the battles of pickets, strikers, and union organizers in the courtroom. Our members represented the beleaguered AFL, CIO, and UAW during well-financed corporate attacks on their organizing drives. Today, Guild lawyers are on the legal staffs of many unions and are active in the struggle for union democracy.
We work to make the legal system accessible to the poor by campaigning to establish state- funded legal services and public defender staff across the country.
The National Lawyers Guild is committed to international social justice. In 1945, the Guild lawyers were consultants to the United States delegation at the conference that founded the United Nations, and a Guild member was an official observer to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. In 1946, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers was founded and a Guild member served as its first secretary-general. Since then, the Guild has remained involved in many facets of international legal work. In addition to analyzing and commenting on international legal issues, our delegations have enabled us to study the legal systems of other nations, and our members have developed innovative remedies in U.S. courts both to bring international human rights violators to justice and to recover wealth hidden in the United States by overseas dictators.
1950s
During the "McCarthy Era" NLG played a central role in the defense of labor leaders, political activists and the many other targets of the House Un-American Activities Committee and its progeny.--++--The National Lawyers Guild fights political repression. The Guild lobbied extensively against repressive legislation. Guild members represented the Hollywood 10 and virtually every other person subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), among other now infamous McCarthy-era investigative bodies. Guild lawyers argued landmark cases such as Dennis v. U.S. and Bailey v. Richardson before Supreme Court. The Guild filled dozens of amicus briefs in opposition to the Smith Act, the Loyalty Program, HUAC, and to the deportation of aliens or denial of citizenship based on political beliefs. During this period, the Guild also acted as a clearinghouse for ideas that served to fortify lawyers' efforts to develop litigation strategies for the protection of subpoenaed witnesses.
The National Lawyers Guild opposes all forms of racial discrimination. From anti-Klan and anti-lynching legal work, from opposition to poll taxes, to supporting affirmative action and diversity both in the work force and throughout society, the Guild has always fought for racial justice. In the early 1960's, as the expanding civil rights movement in the South encountered repression and resistance, Guild lawyers poured into the southern states to work with local attorneys on particular cases. In 1964, a campaign was organized to focus national attention on the struggles on Mississippi. The Guild opened a law office in Jackson to assist this effort at a time when the Justice Department refused to become involved in the legal defense of the civil rights movement. This led to Guild lawyers' representation of hundreds of "freedom riders" and civil rights activists, the organization's deep involvement in the Black and Puerto Rican liberation movements, and the founding of several public interest law firms, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, in New York, and the Instituto Puertorriqueño De Derechos Civiles, in San Juan.
1960s
In the first organized attempt to provide large-scale assistance to the southern civil rights movement, the Guild established the Committee to Aid Southern Lawyers and opened offices in Jackson, Mississippi, and other southern cities.-=-=-=-=--The National Lawyers Guild was active in the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. Throughout the Vietnam War, the Guild offered legal assistance to people opposed to the War for political, religious, or moral reasons. Guild attorneys represented members of the Chicago 7. In 1971, three Guild-sponsored military law offices opened overseas to provide legal assistance to hundreds of GIS facing U.S. Army proceedings.
Meanwhile, in 1967, the New York City Chapter sponsored the nation's first conference on draft law. And, in 1968, chapter attorneys organized a mass defense office in response to the Columbia University sit-ins. The mass defense office, which provided legal representation to those arrested during the huge demonstrations of this era, continues to serve score of progressive groups.
The National Lawyers guild defends the rights of women. The National Lawyers Guild has always been a champion of women's rights in society, law schools, and the legal profession. Guild attorneys pioneered litigation strategies in support of women's reproductive rights, including extending Medicaid funding to indigent women and defending abortion clinics from the attack by Operation rescue. Guild members have also played a crucial role in developing defenses for victims of domestic violence.
1970s
NLG provided legal counsel to draft resisters and antiwar activists and in 1971 opened offices in Southeast Asia to provide legal defense to GIs resisting the war in Indochina. The Guild was also actively involved in the struggles for affirmative action and women's and gay rights, and organized defense teams for Wounded Knee and Attica.=-+=-+they did nothing besides LSD
1980s
The Guild was a leader in organizing demands for affirmative action in law schools and defending gains when courts became vehicles of organized backlash. A new generation of legal activists organized support for the anti-nuclear movement and for groups opposing U.S. intervention in Central America. It also forged innovative strategies for advancing domestic and international human rights.-!-!-!-!!!!!!!!The National Lawyers Guild held the line against right-wing attacks upon our civil rights. Guild lawyers created innovative defense strategies for Central American and Haitian refugees, protected the pro-choice and gay rights movements from the tactics of Operation Rescue and the far right, and challenged restrictions on artistic expression put forth by the National Endowment for the Arts.
1990s
This decade has seen NLG at the helm of the fight for workers rights both in the United States and abroad. The Guild has responded to the challenges of the right and the growing anti-poor and anti-immigrant sentiment in this country by providing legal advice and support to the progressive movement on these issues.
----and lastly--
The National Lawyers Guild needs you. For the 1990's, the Guild needs the
energy and skills of all our members in order to continue and strengthen
the organization's tradition of commitment to progressive legal work. As
law schools and the mainstream bar try to reshape the public-interest law
tradition into a more restrictive model geared to individual charity and
status quo government service, our historic role will become more and
more important to activists and communities seeking to advance
fundamental social change.
I NEED A LAWYER ! I just ran over my own foot! |
