On Friday, May 24 this year, Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered
remarks at a Memorial Event in honor of Stephen J. Pollak. The gathering in the
Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Great Hall honored Pollack who died in
February at the age of 95. Pollak led the Department’s Civil Rights Division
(Division) from 1965 to 1967 and was a key player in many of the cases and
events that marked the civil rights movement in the 1960s and 70s.

On his first day working in the Division, Pollak was deployed to Selma,
Alabama to ensure that state and local officials complied with a federal court
order permitting demonstrators to proceed to the state capital in Montgomery.
The march has been described as a catalyst for passage of the Voting Rights
Act of 1965 in which Pollak played a central role, helping to negotiate the final
draft bill of the federal civil rights law.

He also worked with then Attorney General Robert Kennedy to ensure that
James Meredith was allowed to enroll at the University of Mississippi. He later
served as an Advisor to President Lyndon Johnson and an Assistant to
Solicitor General Archibald Cox. He also served as counsel on President
Johnson’s War on Poverty and drafted the legislation creating the Volunteers in
Service to Amera (VISTA) program. Later, in private practice, he argued 13
cases before the Supreme Court, including cases on behalf of students with
disabilities and a case challenging school desegregation in Charlotte, North
Carolina, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S.
1(1971).

At the Memorial ceremony in May, Attorney General Garland recalled Pollak
speaking at the Civil Rights Division’s 65th Anniversary celebration in
December 2022. In response to accolades for the work he did, Pollack
responded. “I did not do it alone, I served with great people in the Division…
All of you who are serving now or have served, I commend you and commend
your tasks. These are great laws that you are enforcing, and they need
everything that you can give them.” Garland praised Pollak’s extraordinary
service to the DOJ and to the cause of civil rights, saying “it helped ensure
that the government in which he served was in fact a force for good.”