Monday, May 16, 2011 | news
CHICAGO — The City of Chicago must hire 111 black firefighter applicants who were passed over for jobs years ago and pay tens of millions of dollars in damages to about 6,000 other black candidates under a ruling issued on Friday by a federal appeals court. The decision from the United States Court of Appeals […]
Friday, January 14, 2011 | case-update
In January 2011, LDF filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Lewis v. City of Chicago. This is the latest round, following our unanimous victory in the Supreme Court, of our long-running litigation to secure justice for over 6,000 African-American applicants unfairly denied firefighter jobs with the Chicago Fire […]
Friday, October 5, 2012 | news
A coalition of educational and civil rights groups filed a federal complaint on Thursday saying that black and Hispanic students were disproportionately excluded from New York City’s most selective high schools because of a single-test admittance policy they say is racially discriminatory. The complaint, filed with the United States Education Department, seeks to have the policy found […]
Wednesday, February 10, 2021 | case-issue
Police Accountability Requires Transparency In Maryland, police misconduct investigations are sometimes closed, and officers cleared, because of inadequate investigations. If access is limited to certain types of complaints, they may be misclassified, hiding troubling conduct that the public has a right to know about. Currently, Maryland’s Public Information Act has been interpreted to block the release […]
Friday, April 19, 2024 | case-issue
Case: Capital Punishment Challenging California’s Death Penalty System Confronting Racial Bias in Capital Punishment Sentencing Schemes On April 9, 2024, civil rights and legal groups filed a challenge to California’s death penalty in the State Supreme Court. The lawsuit asserts the state’s death penalty statute is racially discriminatory, as applied, and therefore unconstitutional under the […]
Monday, December 27, 2010 | news
The release last week of the first numbers from the 2010 Census underscores even more than usual the importance for all Americans, and especially Americans of color of heeding the nationwide redistricting process about to get under way. As the U.S. Census Bureau releases more data in February and March, state legislatures will begin redrawing […]
Monday, December 27, 2010 | case-update
The release last week of the first numbers from the 2010 Census underscores even more than usual the importance for all Americans, and especially Americans of color of heeding the nationwide redistricting process about to get under way. As the U.S. Census Bureau releases more data in February and March, state legislatures will begin redrawing […]
Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | page
On May 17, 2021, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund marked the 67th anniversary of the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education with a panel on the intergenerational power of student activism. Associate Director-Counsel Janai Nelson facilitated a conversation between civil rights activist Leona Tate and student-led grassroots organization Teens Take Charge. Education Secretary […]
Wednesday, May 8, 2019 | page
On May 17, 2019, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education turns 65. On this date in 1954, the Court declared the doctrine of “separate but equal” unconstitutional and handed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) the most celebrated victory in its storied history. Brown v. Board of Education invalidated racial segregation in […]
Tuesday, March 18, 2025 | page
Make a donation to LDF to power our work! Donate Now Celebrating the 85th Anniversary of the Legal Defense Fund The Legal Defense Fund 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 Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, […]
