Thursday, December 14, 2017 | news
Read a PDF of our statement here. LDF Celebrates Ruling From New York’s Highest Court to Help End Racially-Tainted Wrongful Convictions The New York State Court of Appeals today ruled that New York courts must instruct juries about the likelihood of eyewitness misidentification when the observer-witness is a different race than the suspect. The ruling in […]
Friday, September 20, 2024 | news
Today, in recognition of National Black Voter Registration Day, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) issues a call to action, urging all eligible Black voters to register to vote or check their voter registration status ahead of the general election on November 5, 2024. The freedoms of our democracy were denied to generations of Black Americans. […]
Monday, September 16, 2013 | news
Demetrius Newton, a treasured LDF cooperating attorney in Alabama, died recently at the age of 85. As as civil rights lawyer, he represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. as well as many others arrested during protests in Birmingham, Alabama. He became the first African American to serve as speaker pro-tem of the Alabama House of […]
Tuesday, January 14, 2014 | news
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) applauds the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Judge Robert Wilkins to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Judge Wilkins is one of three individuals nominated to the D.C. Circuit by President Obama in a Rose Garden ceremony last June, attended by LDF. […]
Monday, June 20, 2022 | news
Today, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York. The new law builds on the strongest parts of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and prior state voting rights acts to protect New York voters against discrimination and empower New Yorkers and state government officials to […]
Thursday, June 30, 2022 | news
Today, following the official retirement of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the newest Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman to ever serve on the nation’s highest judicial body. In response to this historic occasion, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President […]
Thursday, April 23, 2015 | news
Today’s Senate confirmation of Loretta Lynch as the 83rd Attorney General of the United States is truly historic and long overdue. Ms. Lynch will be the first African-American woman ever to lead the Department of Justice. LDF, which strongly supported the nomination, is relieved that the unprecedented delay in her confirmation vote—lasting more than 5 […]
Thursday, April 18, 2019 | ldf-perspectives
LDF Celebrates Black History: Julius Chambers Former LDF Director-Counsel Julius Chambers was a brilliant civil rights lawyer with calm tenacity. The “cool under fire” resolve was on display when he was a target of racial violence for the work he did. In the late 1960s, Chambers’ home was bombed, his car dynamited, his law office […]
Thursday, April 18, 2019 | ldf-perspectives
In This Installment of “LDF 75 Years of Making Black History” The Honorable Deval Patrick was elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2006 and was reelected in November 2010, renewing his commitment to expanding opportunity and prosperity in Massachusetts. Governor Patrick’s life has charted a path from the South Side of Chicago to the […]
Wednesday, February 1, 2017 | news
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by Black Americans and a time to pay tribute to the extraordinary and critical role African Americans have played in shaping U.S. history. Over the next four weeks, we will be reflecting on LDF’s contribution to Black history by featuring several of our landmark civil rights […]
