Isadore "Shad" Polier (March 18, 1906 – June 30, 1976) was an American lawyer and civic leader who fought racial and religious discrimination in employment, education, and law enforcement.
[1][2] At its inception in 1931, he served as executive director of the International Juridical Association, with secretary Carol Weiss King, and Joseph Kover, editor of its monthly bulletin.
[3] A congressional report alleged that the National Lawyers Guild, of which Polier was a member, showed "consistent support of Communist legal cases during its entire career.
[3] CLSA conducted legal battles against antisemitism, segregation, racism, and other discriminatory laws in order to "defend civil liberties and fight discrimination against all minority groups.
[1][2] In 1948, he personally sued Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for discriminatory practices in its Stuyvesant Town Development in New York City, specifically for not admitting African-Americans.
The original case was dismissed, but the American Jewish Congress (AJC), of which Polier was the vice president, continued to fight for fair housing laws.
[1][2] Correspondence in his papers include letters exchanged with El Mehdi Ben Aboud (Ambassador of Morocco), Roy Wilkins, Thurgood Marshall, Felix Frankfurter, Hubert Humphrey, John Haynes Holmes, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and Adlai E.