Today, a coalition of civil rights organizations sent a letter to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Senator Sherrod Brown and Ranking Member Senator Patrick Toomey expressing support for the nomination of Dr. Lisa D. Cook to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Dr. Cook is eminently qualified. She is the experienced leader needed to ensure the economy continues to expand and that the Board’s decisions produce an equitable recovery so that American families have access to economic opportunities. Her breadth of research and experience will also help ensure underserved lending institutions, like community banks and minority-owned lending institutions, can fully participate in the economy. If confirmed, Dr. Cook will become the first Black woman to serve on the Board and her confirmation would bring much-needed diversity to the Federal Reserve.
The letter also addresses the unfair and troubling criticism directed at Dr. Cook and incorrect assertions about her qualification to serve on the Board. The letter includes a detailed comparison of Dr. Cook’s excellent experience, and the experience of other recent Governors nominated by previous administrations. Further, it is incorrect to assert that a candidate’s experience and scholarship needs to be exclusively grounded in macroeconomic policy in order to bring effective judgment and important lived experience to Board. We strongly believe that Dr. Cook’s breadth of scholarship regarding the U.S. and international economies, hands-on experience in service on the Indianapolis Federal Home Loan Bank Board, and extensive research on the impact of racial inequality in the U.S. economy, as well as her lived experience, would bring much-needed insight, intelligence, and judgment to a Board that has often been criticized for favoring Wall Street over Main Street and for ignoring the realities of certain sectors of the economy.
Read the full letter here.
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Follow LDF on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
