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"The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is simply the best civil rights law firm in American history." -- President Obama

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Civil Rights and Race Relations in America and Their Impact on the Lives of African Americans

  • LDF Successfully Defends Lower Court Ruling in Historic School Desegregation Case

    12/28/11

    New York, NY -- On December 28, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit affirmed key aspects of the lower court’s decision in Little Rock School District v. Lorene Joshua.

  • Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Journey Through the American Death Penalty System

    12/16/11
    Source: 
    Open Society Foundations

    Mumia Abu-Jamal’s journey through the American death penalty system began on December 9, 1981, when he was arrested and charged with capital murder in the shooting death of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Six months later, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for this crime. In the years that followed, Abu-Jamal’s case attracted national and international attention; recorded remarkable victories and painful losses; and came to symbolize the failure of the American capital punishment system.

  • Life Sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal

    12/07/11
    Source: 
    NAACP Legal Defense Fund

    (New York, NY) -- Today, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced that it will not seek another death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal.  Pennsylvania law now requires Mr. Abu-Jamal to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for his controversial 1982 murder conviction in the shooting death of a police officer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

  • Mother Jones: NAACP Decries "James Crow Esq."

    12/06/11
    Source: 
    Mother Jones

    State-level voting restrictions are an attempt to suppress the minority vote and prevent them from exercising political influence, according to a report released by the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund Monday.

  • AP: NAACP Wants New Voting Laws Struck Down

    12/06/11
    Source: 
    Associated Press

    The NAACP has been collecting information about early voting advocacy by black churches in Florida, hoping to convince the Justice Department to strike down a slew of new state voting laws it claims are intended to thwart growing minority participation at the polls ahead of next year's presidential election.

    In a report released Monday, the NAACP argues that the new laws amount to a coordinated and comprehensive assault on minorities' voting rights at a time when their numbers in the population and at the ballot box have increased.