237:. It served as the center of the welfare rights movement in New York City. Sparer started the Center as the great need of individual clients' demands in neighborhood offices left little time to organize the strategic litigation. His two-tiered model allowed neighborhood lawyers and social workers in community-based offices to handle the day-to-day cases while the Center could partner for the impact litigation.
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in 1963. Sparer, instead of following the Vera
Foundation's recommendation, pushed the organization to focus on impact litigation to change the institutions that created and sustained poverty. MFY Legal Services became the prototype for storefront poverty law offices which opened in virtually every
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Sparer brought a series of test cases to create a constitutional "right to live" where the court would recognize the right of individuals to access the essentials of subsistence. Sparer viewed the source of poverty as not from a lack of skills or education but from a lack of power. His test case
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It was through this research that he became familiar with the antipoverty organization
Mobilization for Youth (MFY). At that time MFY was expanding into legal services to provide legal information to low-income clients based on a report by the
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Mink, Gwendolyn; Majic, Samantha Ann; Zarnow, Leandra (2008), "Poverty Law and Income
Support: From the Progressive Era to the War on Welfare", in Grossberg, Michael; Tomlins, Christopher (eds.),
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Bussiere, Elizabeth (1999). "The
Supreme Court and the Development of the Welfare State: Judicial Liberalism and the Problem of Welfare Rights". In Clayton, Cornell W.; Gillman, Howard (eds.).
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from 1969 until his death. While at the
University of Pennsylvania he founded the Health Law Project where he was a pioneer in health law and pushed for greater access to healthcare.
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renamed the Public
Interest Law Conference to the Edward V. Sparer Symposium bringing together legal academics and practitioners to provide insight into the area of poverty law.
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as it was the only law school in New York City that would accept him without an undergraduate degree. He graduated at the top of his class and was editor-in-chief of the
155:. During his sophomore year of college he was vice president of the student council and led strikes against the school because of faculty and administrators who were
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110:(March 21, 1928 – June 21, 1983) was an attorney known as the "father of welfare law." He was a prominent legal scholar, founded the organizations now known as
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163:. Disillusioned with the school he married his classmate Tanya Schecter and they dropped out and joined the American Communist Party. They moved to
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established the Edward V. Sparer Public
Interest Law Fellowship Program for law students to prepare for careers in social justice.
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Schneider, Elizabeth M. (2000). "THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EDWARD V. SPARER PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM".
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Despite renouncing the
Communist Party he needed a letter of recommendation from anti-communist labor leader
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Sparer was born in New York City to Marcus Sparer, a retail merchant, and Ada Cohen. He graduated from
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to gain his law license. Upon graduating from law school in 1959, he worked as a lawyer for the
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strategy failed to create a "right to live" but led to several landmark victories at the
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States of
Dependency: Welfare, Rights, and American Governance, 1935–1972
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plant except for a two-year hiatus from 1951-1953 where he served in the
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580:"Remembering Edward V. Sparer: An Enduring Vision for Legal Services"
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Rosoff, Arnold J. (2004). "Health Law at Fifty Years: A Look Back".
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Sparer resigned from the communist party in 1956 after learning of
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Brutal Need: Lawyers and the
Welfare Rights Movement, 1960-1973
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Supreme Court Decision-Making: New Institutionalist Approaches
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Freedman, Henry (2006), "Syvester Smith, Unlikely Herione:
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professor Monrad Paulsen with a study of juvenile courts.
606:"Edward V. Sparer: Some Thoughts About His Work and Life"
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Clearinghouse REVIEW Journal of Poverty Law and Policy
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463:
213:. He then briefly transitioned to academia assisting
373:(1968)", in Rosser, Ezra; Failinger, Marie (eds.),
260:Sparer transitioned to academia where he taught at
233:In 1965 he left MFY Legal Services and founded the
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448:"EDWARD SPARER, 55; LEGAL ADVOCATE FOR THE POOR"
375:The Poverty Law Canon: Exploring the Major Cases
147:In the summer of 1947, Sparer traveled to the
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118:, and was the strategist behind the landmark
80:Benjamin Franklin High School (New York City)
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211:International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
116:National Center for Law and Economic Justice
489:Law, Sylvia A. (1984). "Edward V. Sparer".
629:Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine
18:
424:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1101192
175:as a teacher and later as a lifeguard in
151:to organize textile workers on behalf of
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352:The Cambridge History of Law in America
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235:Center on Social Welfare Policy and Law
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610:University of Pennsylvania Law Review
517:"Poverty Lawyering in the Golden Age"
492:University of Pennsylvania Law Review
290:University of Pennsylvania Law School
266:University of Pennsylvania Law School
140:in New York City and enrolled at the
7:
446:Margolick, David (June 25, 1983).
14:
578:Smith, Gary F. (September 2005).
276:Sparer died on June 21, 1983, in
604:Weishaupt, Richard P. (1984).
1:
755:20th-century American lawyers
730:American civil rights lawyers
264:from 1967 to 1969 and at the
138:Benjamin Franklin High School
663:"Edward V. Sparer Symposium"
515:Diller, Matthew (May 1995).
379:University of Michigan Press
562:University of Chicago Press
412:American National Biography
245:. These victories included
167:, and worked to organize a
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735:Brooklyn Law School alumni
725:Lawyers from New York City
476:Cambridge University Press
356:Cambridge University Press
189:. Sparer then enrolled at
142:City College of New York
132:Early life and education
112:Mobilization for Justice
740:Yale Law School faculty
470:Tani, Karen M. (2016).
416:Oxford University Press
43:New York City, New York
149:southern United States
337:Yale University Press
230:major American city.
165:Schenectady, New York
101:Father of Welfare Law
686:Brooklyn Law Review
522:Michigan Law Review
408:"Sparer, Edward V."
297:Brooklyn Law School
278:Woodstock, New York
251:Shapiro v. Thompson
215:Columbia Law School
195:Brooklyn Law Review
191:Brooklyn Law School
84:Brooklyn Law School
61:Woodstock, New York
720:American activists
243:U.S. Supreme Court
227:MFY Legal Services
120:U.S. Supreme Court
284:Legacy and honors
255:Goldberg v. Kelly
125:Goldberg v. Kelly
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184:Joseph Stalin's
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635:(1): 197–211.
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98:Known for
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57:(aged 55)
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39:March 21, 1928
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55:(1983-06-21)
750:Poverty law
715:1983 deaths
710:1928 births
187:Great Purge
157:antisemitic
68:Nationality
704:Categories
90:Occupation
35:1928-03-21
303:Footnotes
295:In 1985,
288:In 1984,
173:U.S. Army
668:March 1,
649:37510548
641:15124457
406:(2000),
331:(1993).
114:and the
93:Attorney
71:American
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253:, and
201:Career
177:Panama
161:racist
645:S2CID
583:(PDF)
539:JSTOR
272:Death
122:case
670:2019
637:PMID
159:and
50:Died
29:Born
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