The Law Students Civil Rights Research Council (LSCRRC), founded in 1963, is a non-partisan organization dedicated to facilitating discussion on civil rights and providing research for civil liberties cases. LSCRRC also makes its members available to do legal research for organizations needing assistance with civil liberties cases. The organization also created a library of civil rights materials organized into a numerical system for use by students, researchers, and legal professionals. Though a number of the original files were lost during the LSCRRC operation, remaining materials can be found in the LSCRRC records.
The organization was established in 1963 by law students from northern universities traveling to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Through the assistance of Marion Wright Edelman, the LSCRRC secured space in the ACLU offices. In 1964, Howard Slater was named the group’s first director. The goal of the council was to offer law students an opportunity to use their legal and organizational skills to promote economic, ethnic, racial, and sexual equality. The group was run by a board of directors comprised of representatives from each of the LSCRRC’s fourteen regions. Membership could be acquired by applying to the Summer Internship Program (SIP), participating in a LSCRRC event, or contacting a regional office.
Starting in 1964 the LSCRRC began the SIP to give interested law students real world experience and foster activism among young professionals. In the twenty-four years that the program was active, over four thousand students participated in the program. In addition to raising social awareness, the SIP served as a training program for the student interns while providing direct legal assistance to needy communities and organization. The SIP was the largest function of the organization, but the LSCRRC also ran programs partnered with Legal Services Corporation, National Lawyers Guild, Community Designed Projects, NAACP, Legal Aid Society, Advocates for Children, ACLU, Center for Constitutions, the Ford Foundation Women’s Law fund, and numerous other civically minded groups.
The organization has chapters in law schools around the United States and continues as of 2008 as a non-partisan group dedicated to legal questions surrounding topics such as the death penalty, migrant worker rights, and AIDS.
From the guide to the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council Records, 1961-1994, 1964-1987, (Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections)
