As the legal arm of the civil rights movement, LDF has a tradition of expert legal advocacy in the Supreme Court and other courts across the nation. LDF’s victories established the foundations for the civil rights that all Americans enjoy today. In its first two decades, LDF undertook a coordinated legal assault against officially enforced public school segregation. This campaign culminated in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court decision in 1954 that has been described as “the most important American governmental act of any kind since the Emancipation Proclamation.” The Court’s unanimous decision overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine of legally sanctioned discrimination, widely known as Jim Crow.
A strong democracy requires an informed electorate participating in the political process. LDF pursues efforts to support democracy by building, promoting, and protecting Black political power.
Poverty isolates people and communities from opportunity. LDF advocates for economic security in Black communities by challenging and dismantling racial barriers that have impeded progress and prolonged economic disparities
LDF works to end the oppression, control, and dehumanization of people of color across the criminal legal system and to advance a new vision for the future of justice and safety that affirms everyone’s humanity.
LDF works tirelessly to advance educational equity and ensure that all students have access to a safe, truthful, inclusive, and comprehensive education.
Despite the groundbreaking advances LDF has made in recent years, it has become increasingly clear that white supremacist ideologies have once again infiltrated mainstream American culture. This shift will be catastrophic if left unchecked — normalizing bigotry, reinvigorating voter suppression and school segregation, and exacerbating economic discrimination, mass incarceration, and police brutality.
But LDF was built for this — forged from the fires of our groundbreaking and successful challenges to Jim Crow-era practices and meticulously honed over the decades with the litigation and advocacy experience LDF now brings to battle each day. LDF’s founders had the courage to imagine a radically different America — a society in which Black people could live free from discrimination and fear, and in which opportunity for a life of dignity and advancement could be reached. Our predecessors won many victories, but, as is painfully apparent, there are no permanent victories. Challenges remain on every front in the battle for civil rights and equality.
Standing at this crossroads for our nation, LDF is tasked with envisioning the form that the next 85 years of civil rights struggles will take. With your support, LDF will bring the expertise of our legacy and the clarity of our vision to shape democracy for the 21st century.
