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Donald Jelinek (1934-2016), was an American lawyer who defended civil rights workers from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the South in the 1960's, and the Native Americans who seized Alcatraz Island in 1969.

Early life and education
Donald Arthur Jelinek was born in the Bronx on Feb. 17, 1934. His parents were immigrants to the United states. His father had a print shop and his mother worked as a secretary. He attended the Bronx High School of Science, and took his higher education degrees from New York University and New York University Law School.

SNCC
Jelinek left his job at a Wall Street law firm in 1965 and volunteered to work during the summer for the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union, representing mostly workers from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He stayed on after the summer, and in 1966 was arrested for practicing law in Alabama without a license.

He directed the Southern Rural Research Project, which documented rural malnutrition and sued the Agriculture Department to distribute surplus commodities to the hungry and to force recalcitrant county officials to participate in the federal food stamp program.

In 1968 he filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture representing poor African Americans in Alabama. The suit demanded distribution of food stamps and surplus food in counties that were denying these services to the poor. The suit arose about of the work of the Southern Rural Research Project, which documented the extent of malnutrition in rural areas.

He remained connected to the civil rights movement and a member of Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement.

Alcatraz and Attica
After moving to California, he represented the Native Americans who seized Alcatraz Island in 1969. They claimed title under a 19th-century treaty and aired their other grievances against the federal government during a 19-month occupation. Mr. Jelinek practically lived on the island, raised money for the protesters and helped persuade prosecutors to level relatively minor charges. (Three demonstrators were convicted of stealing copper piping, a verdict overturned on appeal.)

Beginning 1971, Jelinek coordinated the defense of the inmates charged after the Attica prison riot in New York, in which 10 corrections officers and civilian employees and 33 prisoners died. Litigation continued for decades, with inmates being eventually cleared of penalties.

Later career
Jelinek also represented conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War. He served three terms on the Berkeley City Council.

Books

 * Attica Justice: The Cruel 30-Year Legacy of the Nation's Bloodiest Prison Rebellion, Which Transformed the American Prison System. Berkeley, CA: Donald A. Jelinek, 2011. ISBN 9780970460714
 * White Lawyer, Black Power: Civil Rights Lawyering during the Black Power Era in Mississippi and Alabama. Berkeley, CA: Donald A Jelinek, 2015. ISBN 978-0970460738

Personal life
He married Estelle Cohen Fine while working in the South. Their marriage ended in divorce. He married Jane Sherr in Berkeley, and they remained married until his death on June 24, 2016. He asked that his epitaph read "he was part of SNCC". nytobit