As the movement grew, so did the volume of legal work required to protect demonstrators, challenge discriminatory laws, and press for enforcement of federal protections. Norman supported three interconnected legal organizations:

• NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (Norman grantee 1958–1986): LDF provided representation to the movement’s frontline activists and pursued school desegregation cases across the South in the years following Brown v. Board of Education.
• Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee (Norman grantee 1964–1966): LCDC deployed attorneys to the Deep South to defend civil rights activists during Freedom Summer and challenged unconstitutional practices in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
• Law Students Civil Rights Research Council (Norman grantee 1964–1969): LSCRRC placed law students in civil rights and anti-poverty legal organizations, building the next generation of public interest lawyers. A 1968 Norman grant supported a landmark conference at Emory University on civil rights in urban areas, and a 1969 grant funded summer internships for Black students entering Southern law schools.