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Holt v. Scovill

Dickson County appeared to be an idyllic, rural community of rolling farmland in north-central Tennessee. But decades of toxic dumping at a landfill poisoned the groundwater, and left three generations of a local African-American family who live next to the landfill searching for justice. In 2007 LDF, along with co-counsel, began representing 11 members of […]

Holder Is Right About Carolina Voting Law

LDF, the National Urban League and the NAACP respond to a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing the Justice Department challenge of South Carolina’s new voter ID law. Your editorial “Holder’s Racial Politics” (Dec. 30) criticizes Attorney General Eric Holder for the Department of Justice’s decision to reject a proposed South Carolina law that would have […]

Hithon v. Tyson Foods, Inc.

John Hithon worked at a Tyson Foods plant in Gadsden, Alabama for 13 years. Despite his experience, when two supervisor jobs opened up at his plant he was passed over, remaining stuck in lower management. Instead, two white men from other plants were hired. Hithon believed his supervisor’s failure to promote him resulted from racial […]

History Lessons

The Sweatt family’s brief in the pending Supreme Court case, Fisher v. University of Texas, which the justices will hear next Wednesday, makes much of Chief Justice Vinson’s reference to “the interplay of ideas and the exchange of views.” It was, the brief maintains, “this court’s first recognition of the importance of diversity in higher […]

History Highlights: The March on Washington For Jobs and Freedom

History

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law firm. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled […]

History

The Battle for the Ballot LDF has also consistently fought to eliminate barriers to full political participation by all Americans in our nation’s democratic processes.  In 1943, Thurgood Marshall successfully persuaded the Supreme Court to rule in Smith v. Allwright that Texas’s refusal to allow African-Americans to vote in the Democratic primary election violated the […]

Historic Win: U.S. Supreme Court Rules Alabama’s Congressional Map Violates the Voting Rights Act by Diluting Black Political Power

CONTACT: Ella Wiley, LDF, media@naacpldf.org  Inga Sarda-Sorensen, ACLU, 347-514-3984, isarda-sorensen@aclu.org WASHINGTON – In a historic win for voting rights, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in Allen v. Milligan in favor of Black voters, affirming the district court’s order striking down Alabama’s 2021-enacted congressional map for violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) for […]

Historic Number of Corporations File Amicus Briefs in U.S. Supreme Court in Support of College Admissions Policies That Foster Diversity

In a show of historic and overwhelming support for affirmative action, 82 corporations and business groups (see list below) signed three amicus briefs filed in the Supreme Court of the United States in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina asking the Court to uphold over 40 years […]

Historic Black Community Condemns EPA for Failing to Enforce Civil Rights

Read a PDF of our statement here.  HISTORIC BLACK COMMUNITY CONDEMNS EPA FOR FAILING TO ENFORCE CIVIL RIGHTS  After Neglecting Investigation for 14 Years, EPA Closes Civil Rights Complaint Filed Against an Alabama State Agency Earthjustice: Keith Rushing / krushing@earthjustice.org / (202) 667-4500, ext. 5236 LDF: Phoebe Plagens / pplagens@naacpldf.org / (212) 965-2235 Environmental Justice Clinic at Yale Law […]