The LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund was established in 1970 as a special trust in memory of Dr. LeRoy C. Merritt. It is devoted to the support, maintenance, medical care, and welfare of librarians who, in the Trustees' opinion, are:
- Denied employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, religion, age, disability, or place of national origin; or
- Denied employment rights because of defense of intellectual freedom; that is, threatened with loss of employment or discharged because of their stand for the cause of intellectual freedom, including promotion of freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the freedom of librarians to select items for their collections from all the world's written and recorded information, and defense of privacy rights.
If you are in need of assistance, please click here to submit an application. If you have any questions, please contact the Merritt Fund at (800) 545-2433 x4226 or at merrittfund@ala.org. The Merritt Fund is governed by a board of three trustees who are elected by donors.
To donate to the Merritt Fund, visit the donations page. To add a link to the Merritt Humanitarian Fund to your website, visit the Merritt Fund Committee of the Intellectual Freedom Round Table.
