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Welcome to The Legal Defense Fund
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Theodore M. Shaw
Director-Counsel and President |
After my selection in January 2004 as LDF's fifth Director-Counsel, someone said that it must have been my dream come true. My dream came true in 1982 on the day I first came to work for LDF. I am excited and humbled by this recent appointment, and I know that I stand on the shoulders of extraordinary individuals -- Thurgood Marshall, Jack Greenberg, Julius Chambers, and Elaine R. Jones. My new responsibility is to continue their stewardship of this great institution, but I never lose sight of the reason I came to work for LDF -- to work for racial equality and social justice through law.
Since 1940, LDF has been at the forefront of the legal struggle for racial justice. There are some who claim that so much progress has been made that race no longer matters. Some even claim that any programs specifically aimed at helping Black people are illegal; they attack affirmative action, scholarships for Black students, pipeline programs into corporate America, programs to produce more Black PhD's, scientists and engineers, and even integration itself.
These are confusing times for many people of goodwill. They are not easy times. But we should not allow the difficult challenges of these times to push us toward nostalgia for a time that never was. At LDF, we have a clear vision of the work we most continue to do, and the new work we must undertake. The promise of Brown has never been fulfilled. We must provide quality public education for all children, and we refuse to accept, in the face of new demographics, a vision of a racially and economically segregated nation. We are still struggling, in the words of the Civil Rights Movement, "to redeem the soul of America." And we are doing so by looking forward, not backward.
We believe that in the 21st century United States, integration and diversity are not options; they are necessities. We believe that the United States should be bound by the international human rights treaties and covenants it has signed, and that it should abide by them at home and abroad. We believe that quality education, health care, meaningful employment and economic opportunities, the right to vote and fully participate in democracy, and the right to a fair and just judicial system, especially as applied to criminal proceedings, are fundamental and basic human rights.
At LDF, we will continue to fight, using the law, for racial and social justice. When the law is insufficient, we will advocate for change. We will use public education and persuasion. We will not falter and we will not fail. If you have been with us, we thank you and ask you to stay with us. If you have not been with us, join us by supporting us. There is no better cause. It is America's cause, and LDF is one of America's great institutions.
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