Jack Greenberg

 

 

Jack Greenberg was the Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. Professor of Law Emeritus. His areas of expertise included constitutional law, civil rights, human rights law, and civil procedure. A member of the Law School faculty since 1970, Greenberg was named a full-time professor in 1984. He also served as a vice dean at the school. In 1989, Greenberg was appointed dean of Columbia College, which he led for four years before returning to teaching at the Law School. He became a professor emeritus in 2015. Greenberg was assistant counsel to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1949 to 1961 and director-counsel of the organization from 1961 to 1984. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 40 cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Court declared “separate but equal” unconstitutional. Greenberg was founder of the Earl Warren Legal Training Program and a founding member of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Greenberg was honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal and the American Bar Association Thurgood Marshall Award. Greenberg’s numerous publications include "Race Relations and American Law", 1959; "Cases and Materials on Judicial Process and Social Change", 1976; "Crusaders in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought for the Civil Rights Revolution", 1994; and "Brown v. Board of Education: Witness to A Landmark Decision", 2004.