Jack Greenberg earned his degrees from Columbia University: an A.B. in 1945, and an LL.B. in 1948.

Jack Greenberg was Assistant Counsel from 1949 to 1961 for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and then, from 1961 to 1984, he succeeded Thurgood Marshall as Director Counsel. Greenberg was one of the attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the United States Supreme Court as co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Thurgood Marshall.

Since 1984 he has been on the faculty at Columbia University Law School. He was the dean of Columbia College from 1989-1993. Throughout his career he has remained active in civil rights and human rights causes.

In 2001 he was one of 28 distinguished Americans honored by President Bill Clinton with Presidential Citizens Medals at a White House ceremony. President Clinton said of him: "In the courtroom and the classroom, Jack Greenberg has been a crusader for freedom and equality for more than half a century."

Greenberg has received many other awards, including among others: the American Bar Association Thurgood Marshall Award in 1996, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Howard University in 2004.

He has helped found or served on the boards of a number of organizations: Founding member, Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Board member, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Board member, Human Rights Watch (1978-98); and Board member, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

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