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LDF Celebrates 25th Annual Gala Award Dinner

The Editors — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:34:53 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund celebrated its 25th annual National Equal Justice Award Dinner (NEJAD) last week in New York City. The event raised nearly $2.5 million dollar for LDF's mission and programs.

Elaine R. Jones To Receive the American Bar Association Thurgood Marshall Award

The Editors — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:07:21 +0000

By LDF
The American Bar Association has announced that Elaine R. Jones, former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), will receive the organization’s 2011 Thurgood Marshall Award Saturday.

Jacqueline Berrien’s Ambitious Agenda

The Editors — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 03:57:32 +0000

By The Editors
Jacqueline A. Berrien, Chairwoman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has a “sense of urgency” about it's work – and its showing.

Since taking office last April, Berrien has moved swiftly to reverse the federal agency’s reputation as inefficient in keeping track of claims individuals file with it and ineffective in safeguarding workers’ rights, according to a profile in this week’s National Law Journal.

‘Redrawing the Lines’ Launched to Get Communities of Color Involved in Redistricting

The Editors — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:34:15 +0000

By Kristen Clarke
As part of its commitment to bringing African Americans and other communities of color into the redistricting process, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has launched the public education program, “Redrawing the Lines,” with resource and training materials available to community members, activists and policy makers.

LDF Award Dinner Features Video of LDF History

The Editors — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:30:19 +0000

On Thursday, November 4, 2010, LDF hosted its 24th annual National Equal Justice Award Dinner. At the gala, LDF honored two extraordinary business leaders, William M. Lewis, Jr., Co-Chairman of Investment Banking at Lazard and LDF Board Co-Chair Emeritus, and William C. Weldon, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Johnson & Johnson. On this special occasion, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Weldon each received LDF’s National Equal Justice Award.

Legal Defense Fund Gala Dinner Surpasses Goal in Fund-Raising at 70

The Editors — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 23:39:57 +0000

By The Editors

Buoyed by an extraordinary success in fund-raising, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) held its annual National Equal Justice Award Dinner Thursday in New York City in a celebration that exemplified many of the elements of LDF’s past and present.

Civil Rights Conference Honors Julius L. Chambers

The Editors — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:32:05 +0000

By The Editors
Julius L. Chambers, a former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund was honored this week in his native North Carolina in perhaps the most fitting way possible: with a two-day conference intended to identify ways to complete “The Unfinished Work” of the struggle for civil rights.

LDF Announces Availability of Scholarship Applications for the 2011-2012 Academic Year

The Editors — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:30:55 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) Scholarship Programs announced this week that they are accepting applications for the 2011-2012 academic year.

LDF Celebrates 70 Years of Fighting for Justice at NEJAD Gala

The Editors — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:28:02 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) will celebrate its 70th anniversary at its 24th annual National Equal Justice Award Dinner (NEJAD) on Thursday, November 4, 2010 at the Hilton New York Hotel and Towers in New York.

9th Circuit Court of Appeals Leaves Discriminatory Disfranchisement Law in Place

The Editors — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 19:11:25 +0000

Last evening, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision in Farrakhan v. Gregoire that leaves a racially discriminatory disfranchisement law in place.

Jack Greenberg on The Roma in Europe: One of the Gravest Humanitarian Crises of Our Time

The Editors — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 01:42:14 +0000

By The Editors
They’re a people who’ve endured centuries of enslavement, and even after their emancipation in the nineteenth century, endured decades of discrimination whose effects are visible and felt down to the present day.

In broad outline, those words describe the great part of black Americans’ history. But it also describes the history – and the present – of the Roma, an Indo- European people commonly and often derisively called gypsies.

The Impact of Redistricting in Your Community

The Editors — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:52:45 +0000

The changing face of America raises important questions, especially in electoral politics. Are minorities fairly represented at all levels of politics? Do we have an equal voice, and an equal opportunity to elect representatives who consider our needs and interests?

Jack Greenberg Honored by ‘The American Lawyer’

The Editors — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:15:08 +0000

By The Editors
“I have often been asked how a white lawyer from the Bronx came to a career devoted to the rights of black people, a career where he would work mostly with black lawyers and leaders. There is one simple answer and another, deeper one.”

Your Take: Getting Back the Right to Vote

The Editors — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:48:13 +0000

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund will argue in an appeals court in San Francisco today that the state of Washington’s denial of voting rights to convicted felons is rooted in discrimination. By John Payton The most fundamental political right in our society is the right to vote. Today (Sept. 21) the U.S. Court of Appeals [...]

Clyde Murphy: 1948 — 2010

The Editors — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 12:08:10 +0000

By Theodore M. Shaw
He brought an energy and commitment to his work that was rooted in his unabashed commitment to improving the lives of African-American people.

The Myth of Our “Post-Racial Society”

The Editors — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:57:29 +0000

By John Payton
I realize when I say we’re a very racially diverse democracy, sometimes I say it in a way that makes it sound like a triumph; in fact, it’s a challenge.

“Thurgood’s American Story”

The Editors — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 03:08:28 +0000

By The Editors
Early in “Thurgood,” the one-man play about Thurgood Marshall starring Laurence Fishburne now at Washington’s famed John F. Kennedy Center, Marshall recalls that during one of his first nights as an undergraduate at Pennsylvania’s historically black Lincoln University, he and several friends had a minor encounter in the nearby town with the kind of petty racism that was pervasive everywhere in America.

John Payton Receives the Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit

The Editors — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:06:43 +0000

By The Editors
John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. was awarded the Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit on Saturday, May 8, by the Washington Bar Association at its gala Law Day Dinner in the nation’s capitol.

National Law Journal Names Payton and Wells Among The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers

The Editors — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:54:47 +0000

By The Editors “These are the lawyers who’ve defined a decade.” So begins an article in the current issue of the National Law Journal announcing its list of “The Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers.”

NAACP Legal Defense Fund Commends President Obama on Strengthening Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Editors — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:50:36 +0000

Jacqueline Berrien, Associate Director Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is being appointed as Chair of the EEOC.

Senate Committee Conducts Hearings on Jacqueline Berrien, Obama’s Nominee to Head Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Editors — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:50:19 +0000

By The Editors
Thursday, November 19, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions conducted a hearing on the nomination of Jacqueline A. Berrien, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to be the new Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

LDF Celebrates 23rd Annual National Equal Justice Awards Dinner

The Editors — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:39:00 +0000

By The Editors
“There has never been a year like this past year in America.”

Those were the opening words of the brief speech with which John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) welcomed the nearly 800 guests at LDF’s 23rd annual National Equal Justice Awards Dinner in New York on November 4; and that straightforward declarative sentence indeed seemed to capture an entire twelve months’ sense of excitement—and determination—that permeated the buoyant gathering.

Stealing Strategies from Our Playbook: A Brief Conversation with Theodore M. Shaw

The Editors — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:31:29 +0000

By Stacey Patton I had a chance to steal a few moments with former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) President and Director-counsel Theodore M. Shaw after the September 18 symposium on the Supreme Court’s case selection process held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

Michael Bagley and Judith Sloan: Two LDF Stalwarts

The Editors — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:18:28 +0000

By The Editors
There’s a rumor floating around the corridors of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund that Michael Bagley, the longtime director of its scholarships program, and Judith Sloan, who’s held several high-level positions in its Development Department since 1981, have retired.

But no one wants to believe it.