Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship Program
Historical Note
The Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship Program (RHS) was established in 1967 in order to attract young lawyers to the field of poverty law. Initially sponsored by the Legal Services Program within the Office of Economic Opportunity and administered by the University of Pennsylvania, the program recruited recent law school graduates, trained them in various aspects of poverty law, and placed them (for one or two years) in regional legal services projects throughout the country.
The program was named for Reginald Heber Smith, author of Justice and the Poor (1919), a work that is credited with furthering the legal aid movement in the United States; and the Program's Fellows were accordingly called Reggies.
In 1969, the Program was moved from the University of Pennsylvania to Howard University where greater emphasis was placed on attracting minority Fellows. When OEO was dismantled in the mid-1970's, the Reggie Program moved to the Legal Services Corporation. From 1967 to 1985, when the program ended, there were approximately 2,000 Reggies.
Found in 6 Collections and/or Records:
Clinton Bamberger Papers
Henry A. Freedman Papers
Kent Morrison Papers
The Legal Services Program file contains materials related to Morrison's work during his tenure from 1972 to 1973 as Acting Chief of the Evaluation Division of the Office of Economic Opportunity’s Legal Services Program, and Special Assistant to the Director of that office.
The second series contains materials related to Morrison's tenure as Executive Director of El Paso Legal Assistance Society from 1971-1972.
Marna Tucker Papers
Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship Program Collection
The collection is arranged into five series: 1) background information on the Reginald Heber Smith Community Fellows Program, 1967-1985; 2) original rosters and current information of Reggies by class year; 3) current information about former Reggies, arranged alphabetically; 4) planning materials related to the Thirtieth Anniversary Reunion of Reggies; and 5) Reunion program materials and documentation (includes audio-visual materials, stored separately). A finding aid exists.
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