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WilmerHale Announces John A. Payton Fellowship

WilmerHale has announced today the launch of the John A. Payton Summer Associate Fellowship honoring the late John A. Payton, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Sixth President and Director-Counsel and a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP, later WilmerHale, for more than ten years. “Establishing the Fellowship was a way for WilmerHale to honor John, […]

William Taylor, Vigorous Rights Defender, Dies at 78

William L. Taylor, who as a lawyer, lobbyist and government official for more than a half century had significant roles in pressing important civil rights cases and in drafting and defending civil rights legislation, died Monday in Bethesda, Md. He was 78 and lived in Washington. 

William T. Coleman Jr. Awarded Harvard Medal

William T. Coleman Jr., former chairman of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s board of directors, was awarded the 2013 Harvard Medal from the Harvard Alumni Association for his extraordinary service to the University. The Harvard Medal marks yet another achievement in Bill Coleman’s remarkable career, which has been defined, in part, by groundbreaking accomplishments in […]

William M. Lewis

William Lighten

William J. Bynum

William H. Brown

Will Sotomayor Get Her Wish for Unbiased Law?

In The Root (a publication of the Washington Post), LDF Assistant Counsel Vincent Southerland responds to a statement released earlier this week by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor. In it, Justice Sotomayor lent her powerful voice to condemn racially charged remarks made by a federal prosecutor during a criminal trial in Texas. By speaking out, […]

Will Searcy

Will Searcy is the Research and Operations Associate for the Thurgood Marshall Institute at LDF. Prior to joining LDF, he served in a variety of roles at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, including Program Manager, Interim Director of the Black Talent Initiative, and Public Policy Fellow focused on criminal justice reform. A […]

Wilbert Rideau, Former Angola Prisoner, Receives Polk Award

At a podium inside the Roosevelt Hotel last week, Wilbert Rideau, 69, stood before an audience of academics and journalists, as he prepared to deliver a speech more than three decades in the making. “After 31 years they invited me back,” Rideau said. “They remembered me.” Thirty-one years ago, while Rideau was serving a life […]

Why the Wal-Mart Case Is So Important to Women, Minorities

EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments March 29 in the biggest sex-discrimination case in history: Dukes v. Wal-Mart. Many pro-worker advocates are worried that the court—which has made a number of extremely conservative rulings in recent years—will decimate the ability of ordinary people to join together in class actions to sue […]

Why race matters in school admissions

Martha L. Minow is the dean of Harvard Law School. Robert C. Post is the dean of Yale Law School. Why did we, friendly rivals as deans of great and sometimes competitive law schools, join forces to write a common brief to the U.S. Supreme Court? Because we both believe that higher education should select the best possible […]

Why is LDF opposing Thomas Farr?

President Trump nominated Thomas Farr to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in 2017. Since his nomination and re-nomination, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., alongside other national civil rights groups, has vigorously opposed him because we believe he is not fit to serve on the federal bench. […]

Why Do Democrats Want More Police in Schools?

It’s no surprise that Wayne LaPierre and the NRA think that increasing the presence of armed police and security in schools will be good for our children. More disturbing, however, is that Vice President Joe Biden and other key Democrats appear to agree. As reported by the Washington Post, recommendations coming out of the Gun Violence Task […]

Why diversity in higher education isn’t optional

For many students, college is the first time that they have meaningful interactions with people of other races. Because many of our nation’s neighborhoods and schools remain segregated, not by law but in fact, the opportunities to learn from, work with, and live alongside people who are different are often limited in American life. For […]