Wednesday, April 5, 2023 | news
Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) announced the addition of three new members to its Board of Directors: Cecilia Marshall, the granddaughter of LDF founder Thurgood Marshall and Director of External Partnerships at Partnership for Education Advancement; Colleen Foster, a former senior financial services director at Goldman Sachs; and Cynthia Patton, General Counsel and Secretary […]
Tuesday, May 2, 2017 | news
In the late 1960s, the United States was enjoying a new birth of freedom. Earlier in the decade, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, the nation had at last swept away the state-sanctioned segregation and disenfranchisement of Black citizens that had prevailed in the South since the end […]
Thursday, May 2, 2024 | news
May 1, 2024 – Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) announced its fourth 10-person cohort of the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program (MMSP). Launched in January 2021, LDF’s groundbreaking pipeline program will endow the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy of unparalleled excellence in the pursuit of racial justice. […]
Monday, June 21, 2021 | news
LDF Mourns the Loss of George Wallerstein, Longtime Board Member, Award-Winning Astronomer, and Esteemed Professor The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) mourns the loss of George Wallerstein, Board member, celebrated astronomer, Professor Emeritus, and dedicated philanthropic supporter whose generous financial contributions helped establish LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute. Mr. Wallerstein died on May […]
Tuesday, July 19, 2022 | page
Janai S. Nelson Janai S. Nelson is LDF’s President and Director-Counsel. Ms. Nelson has also helped to steward some of LDF’s most pivotal developments in the past seven years, including guiding the design and launching one of the most far-reaching efforts to create the next generation of civil rights leaders: The Marshall-Motley Scholars Program. Prior […]
Friday, March 30, 2018 | staff
Janai Nelson is President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF). The nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. LDF was founded in 1940 by legendary civil rights lawyer and the nation’s first Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, and became a separate organization from the NAACP in […]
Tuesday, January 2, 2018 | news
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) Board member Charles Renfrew died on December 14, 2017. Renfrew was a former federal judge and Deputy Attorney General of the United States, as well as a highly regarded corporate in-house and private practice attorney. “Judge Renfrew was an extraordinary advocate for justice and equality,” said […]
Monday, May 21, 2018 | donor-testi
George Wallerstein began supporting LDF’s work during the civil rights movement in the early 1960’s. “It was apparent even then,” he says, “that the effort to expand civil rights in the United States would be a long job”. LDF is still working to defend the gains made at that time and endeavoring to build on […]
Monday, May 21, 2018 | donor-testi
George Wallerstein began supporting LDF’s work during the civil rights movement in the early 1960’s. “It was apparent even then,” he says, “that the effort to expand civil rights in the United States would be a long job”. LDF is still working to defend the gains made at that time and endeavoring to build on […]
Monday, May 21, 2018 | donor-testi
George Wallerstein began supporting LDF’s work during the civil rights movement in the early 1960’s. “It was apparent even then,” he says, “that the effort to expand civil rights in the United States would be a long job”. LDF is still working to defend the gains made at that time and endeavoring to build on […]
Friday, May 24, 2024 | staff
Beth Caldwell joined LDF as Assistant Counsel in 2024. Before joining LDF, Beth was an appellate public defender at the Center for Appellate Litigation in New York City, where she represented clients in their direct appeals from their criminal convictions in Manhattan and the Bronx. In People v. Garcia, 216 A.D.3d 438 (1st Dep’t 2023), […]
Monday, March 25, 2024 | news
Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) announced the addition of two new members of its Board of Directors: Ron Wilson, renowned civil rights attorney, and cooperating attorney with LDF, and Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law and faculty director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion […]
Tuesday, December 19, 2023 | page
2023 Year in Review Voting Rights Education Criminal Justice Economic Justice Justice Above All Podcast Leadership A Year of Transformation As 2023 comes to a close and we march forward toward 2024, we reflect on the triumphs and challenges of the past year. In a major victory for voting rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled […]
Monday, May 1, 2023 | news
May 1, 2023 – Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) announced its third 10-person cohort of the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program (MMSP). Launched in January 2021, LDF’s groundbreaking pipeline program will endow the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy of unparalleled excellence in the pursuit of racial justice. […]
Monday, March 14, 2022 | director-counsels
Janai S. Nelson is President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. LDF was founded in 1940 by legendary civil rights lawyer and the nation’s first Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, and became a separate organization from the NAACP in […]