California Rural Legal Assistance was founded in 1966 by James D. Lorenz under the auspices of President
Lyndon B. Johnson's
War on Poverty. The first meeting took place on Saturday, May 14, 1966, at 1411 West Olympic Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Those in attendance included,
Cruz Reynoso,
Cesar Chavez,
Larry Itliong, and CRLA Founder, James D. Lorenz. CRLA was originally funded by the
Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). In his first funding request for CRLA, Lorenz wrote about his vision for CRLA, a "Proposal to aid farm workers and other poor persons residing in the rural areas of California". From the beginning, CRLA offered exemplary legal services at no cost for clients. By the late 1960s, the agency handled about 15,000 cases a year, a third of which were primarily concerned with consumer and employment problems. In addition to lawyers, clerks, and researchers, CRLA employed community workers, most of whom were formerly farm workers, who were the bridge between the agency and the communities they sought to serve. Lorenz first worked at a large Los Angeles-based law firm before changing directions and applying for OEO funding for what would soon become CRLA in the spring of 1966. Lorenz was featured in a December 15, 1967,
Time magazine article that highlighted CRLA's mission to serve California's labourers and rural poor.
Cruz Reynoso was the second executive director of CRLA from 1969 to 1972. Reynoso faced fierce opposition to CRLA from then-
Governor Ronald Reagan. Following CRLA's victory in the 1967
Morris v. Williams case that blocked his welfare cuts, Ronald Reagan appointed Lewis K. Uhler as the director of California's Office of Economic Opportunity with the intent of undermining CRLA and its funding. In 1969, Uhler compiled a politically motivated and false report alleging 127 incidents of misconduct on the part of CRLA. CRLA fought the charges and eventually succeeded in getting them dismissed by a
Nixon administration-appointed commission of the chief justices of three state supreme courts. The Uhler Report controversy led to the bipartisan creation of the federal
Legal Services Corporation (LSC). The goal of this organization was to reduce state and local government interference under the OEO funding scheme. Throughout his time as president, Reagan continuously attempted to undermine and eliminate the LSC and CRLA. In 1970, Governor Ronald Reagan also vetoed the OEO's $1.8 million grant for CRLA refunding in 1971 due to the apparent (and later determined false) claims of misuse of OEO funds and "its failure to represent the true legal needs of the poor". In 1971, Reynoso and CRLA lawyer Michael Bennett wrote a landmark article for the UCLA
Chicana/o-Latina/o Law Review, "CRLA: Survival of a Poverty Law Practice" in which they discussed the opposition faced from Governor Reagan, the Uhler Report controversy, and CRLA's role in serving the poor. == Notable work and impact ==