Joseph Rauh; Civil Rights Lawyer, Lobbyist

Joseph L. Rauh Jr., a Washington civil rights lawyer and advocate who founded the liberal Americans for Democratic Action, has died. He was 81.

Rauh suffered a heart attack Thursday night when he returned home from a reception. He died at Washington’s Sibley Hospital.

A great friend and supporter of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Rauh was a major lobbyist in winning passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

“I’m proud of our laws,” he once said. “What our generation has done is bring equality in law. The next generation has to bring equality in fact.”

Born Jan. 3, 1911, in Cincinnati to an immigrant shirt manufacturer, Rauh excelled in athletics in high school and played on the varsity basketball team at Harvard College.

“It has been suggested,” one biographer noted, “that it was as a member of that undermanned squad that he really acquired his sympathy for the underdog.”

Graduating with an economics degree into the Great Depression, Rauh opted to go to Harvard Law School, earning his degree at the head of his class.

He spent his entire career in the capital, starting out as senior law secretary to liberal Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. He also worked as enforcement attorney for the Wage and Hour Administration and as counsel for the Lend-Lease Administration.

Joining the Army in 1942, Rauh was attached to the staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur as lend-lease expert. He advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel and earned the Legion of Merit and Distinguished Service Star.

In 1946, Rauh organized the anti-Communist, liberal organization that became known as the Americans for Democratic Action. It was begun not only to launch political campaigns against conservatives, but also as a barrier against the extreme leftist Progressive Party.

He chaired the ADA’s executive committee from 1947 through 1952, held the title of national ADA chairman from 1955 to 1957, and for many years served as vice chairman.

A senior partner of the firm he founded in 1947, Rauh & Levy, he attracted primarily labor and civil rights clients. They included the United Auto Workers and Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as well as playwrights Lillian Hellman and Arthur Miller, both accused of contempt after refusing to identify writers and artists known to be communists.

In answer to assertions that the Americans for Democratic Action had outlived its usefulness after the end of the McCarthy era, Rauh said in 1955: “It is a group of independent-minded people grappling with the old-line machines of both parties on behalf of good government.”

He said the group continued to be needed to champion civil rights, health insurance and “real” public housing.

Active in several national Democratic conventions, Rauh futilely favored Humphrey over the 1960 nominee, John F. Kennedy.

Influential among mainstream Democrats, Rauh was elected in 1964 to a four-year term as chairman of the District of Columbia Central Committee of the Democratic Party.

He was also active as a lifelong member of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1965, Rauh received an ADA citation “for the happy life of service to a humane and civilized democracy.”