Southern Justice Institute (Durham, N.C.)

The Southern Justice Institute, a public interest law firm, originally the southern division of the Christic Institute of Washington, D.C. It opened in 1985 as the Christic Institute South under director Lewis Pitts in Winston-Salem, N.C., relocating to Carrboro, N.C., a year later, and to Durham, N.C., in 1991. Formed to provide legal aid and organizing assistance to racial and other minorities in the South seeking political empowerment, the Institute incorporated as the independent Southern Justice Institute in 1992 and operated until 1994, handling, in its last two years of operation, mostly child advocacy cases.

The Southern Justice Institute, a public interest law firm founded in 1992 in Durham, N.C., had its origins in the Christic Institute, a Washington, D.C., law firm and religious public policy center formed in 1979 by attorneys, educators, and organizers who had directed the well-publicized Karen Silkwood Case during the late 1970s. In 1985, the Institute opened its Southern division, the Christic Institute South, in Winston-Salem, N.C., with Institute lawyer Lewis Pitts as director. The southern division of the Institute one year later moved its headquarters to Carrboro, N.C., and then in 1991 to Durham, N.C. By 1992, it had separated from the Christic Institute to become an independent organization known as the Southern Justice Institute. The latter ceased operations in 1994 after being fined under Rule 11 sanctions for bringing what the court considered a frivolous lawsuit.

The Christic Institute South set as its specific goals to provide legal aid and organizing assistance to racial and other minorities in the South struggling to empower themselves politically. Suits brought and defense cases litigated prior to 1993 were for the most part of a civil rights nature, including efforts on behalf of activists working to gain political and civil rights for African-Americans, Native Americans, and various activists seeking to protect the rights of unions, tenants, patients, and consumers. Between 1985 and 1992, the organization also served as legal counsel for the National Child Rights Alliance. After 1992, the newly formed Southern Justice Institute maintained this function, and during 1993-1994 was involved in the development of the Legal Action Project of the National Committee for the Rights of the Child. Beginning in 1993, the Institute participated in several suits under the auspices of the Committee, focusing principally on child custody and adoption cases aimed at gaining recognition by the courts of children as legal persons with access to the legal process.

Lewis Pitts, director of the Christic Institute South, 1985-1992, and of the Southern Justice Institute, 1992-1994, also served on the board of trustees of the Southern Organizing Committee and as a consultant to the Citizens' Participation Project, an organization which grew out of the Institute's work in helping local African-American residents restore city government to Keysville, Ga. Pitts continues at present to work for the NCRC's Legal Action Project.