NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Will Maslow, a former head of the American Jewish Congress who fought legal battles against discrimination toward blacks and Jews, has died.
Maslow was 99, The New York Times reported. He died Friday at his home in Manhattan.
As general counsel to the congress and later its executive director, Maslow challenged housing and employment discrimination against Jews in court and quotas for college admissions. His strategy was to confront discrimination directly, abandoning the more conciliatory approach of many Jewish groups.
Maslow also lobbied for a New York law banning discrimination in higher education based on race, religion or ethnic origin. He filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 1954 Brown vs. the Board of Education case and was an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Maslow came to New York as a small child. He graduated from Cornell University and the Columbia School of Law.
He is survived by his wife of 73 years, Beatrice Greenfield Maslow, two daughters, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
