Chapter 4 - Cause Lawyering and Litigation in the 1970s

Summary

“There has always been, and probably will always be, an ‘explicit … conflict between the obligations of law and of conscience—between the commands of law and the claims of justice.’”

—A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.

Introduction

Following the Trial of the Namibians, both Carlson and Lawyers’ Committee members sought a stronger, more permanent organizational link with southern African attorneys. During the 1970s, the Project pioneered corporate responsibility actions, Bar integration, visa cases and support for Black Consciousness movements. As the next three chapters narrate, these efforts made apartheid a more relatable, tangible system for Americans interested in anti-racist efforts. The Project's methods at times changed dramatically, as the organization itself went through several directors and experienced hiccups in opening its full-time office. Yet despite these, the Project's experiments with a variety of approaches to politico-legal change manifested themselves in a few victories and laid the groundwork for more fully contesting apartheid in the 1980s.

Adventures in funding

During the late 1960s, the Lawyers’ Committee moved away from acting solely through private Bar representatives and towards the establishment of a permanent, full-time Washington, DC, office to direct the pro bono efforts of Committee members and their firms. George Lindsay, a New York City-based attorney and brother of city mayor John Lindsay, headed the new Southern Africa Project, which obtained a $5,000 grant from the UN Trust Fund for South Africa, as well as a $10,000 grant from the Marshall Field Foundation. These relatively modest gains, largely resulting from the high profile of their founders, heralded the beginning of long-term relationships with the foundations. The Project later received major funding from the Ford Foundation which, between 1950 and 1967, invested large sums in training judicial leaders and building legal infrastructures in newly-independent African nations. As some of those initiatives wrapped up, it seems the Project provided a space to redirect both funds and logistical support. Lindsey and colleagues resolved to assist members of the South African Bar with litigating trials surrounding the state's abuse of power. Arthur Goldberg took on the task of raising funds for the Project “to support the independence of the judicial system from the political system in South Africa”.