NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund 1025235 224790098 2008-07-10T12:43:40Z Sardanaphalus 427947 updating link using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] {{portalpar|African American|AmericaAfrica.png}} The '''NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.''' ('''NAACP LDF''' or simply '''LDF''') is a leading [[United States]] [[civil rights]] organization based in [[New York City]]. The organization began as the legal wing of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP) under the leadership of [[Charles Hamilton Houston]]. In 1938, [[Thurgood Marshall]], Houston's student, succeeded him as NAACP counsel. Marshall further developed the strategies and goals of the legal department and in [[1957]] established the LDF as an organization independent of the NAACP.<ref>[http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=571 NAACP Legal Defense Fund - Issues<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Theodore M. Shaw was the 5th director-counsel and president of LDF in its 64-year history.<ref>[http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=292 NAACP Legal Defense Fund - News<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> John Payton recently replaced Mr. Shaw as LDF's 6th director-counsel and president. <ref>[http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=1225 NAACP Legal Defense Fund - News<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ==About=={{African American topics (sidebar)|right}} While primarily focused on the civil rights of [[African American]]s in the U.S., LDF states it has "been instrumental in the formation of similar organizations serving other minority constituencies in the United States," and has "been involved in the global campaign for human rights by assisting in the creation of public interest legal organizations in [[South Africa]], [[Canada]] and [[Brazil]]."<ref>[http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=292 NAACP Legal Defense Fund - News<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> LDF's national office is in [[Manhattan]] with regional offices in [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Los Angeles, California]]. LDF has "nearly two dozen staff [[lawyer]]s" and "hundreds of cooperating attorneys across the nation." According to LDF's website, they have "more than 100 cases on [their] docket" and have "been involved in more cases before the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] than any organization except the [[U.S. Department of Justice]]." <ref>[http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=292 NAACP Legal Defense Fund - News<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ===Areas of activity=== * [[Litigation]] * Advocacy * Educational outreach * Policy research and monitoring legislation * Coalition-building * Provides [[scholarship]]s for exceptional African-American students. ===Areas of concern=== * [[Education]] * Civic participation **[[Voting rights]] * Economic access * [[Affirmative action]] * [[Criminal justice]] ** Opposition to the [[death penalty]] ==History== Probably the most famous case in the history of the LDF was ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'', the [[landmark case]] in 1954 in which the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] explicitly outlawed ''[[de jure]]'' [[racial segregation]] of [[public education]] facilities. During the civil rights protests of the 1960s, LDF represented and provided counsel for Dr. [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]], among others.<ref>[http://www.naacpldf.org/content.aspx?article=292 NAACP Legal Defense Fund - News<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> ===Prominent cases=== ====1930s==== * '''1935''' ''[[Murray v. Pearson]]'' removed unconstitutional [[color bar]] from [[University of Maryland School of Law]] admission policy. (Handled by Thurgood Marshall for the NAACP before the formal foundation of LDF.) * '''1938''': ''[[Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada]]'' invalidated state laws that refused African American students access to all-white state graduate schools when no separate state graduate schools were available for African Americans. (Handled by Thurgood Marshall for the NAACP before the formal foundation of LDF.) ====1940s==== * '''1940''': ''[[Alston v. School Board of City of Norfolk]]'', a federal court order that African American [[public school]] teachers be paid equal salaries regardless of [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]]. * '''1940''': ''[[Chambers v. Florida]]'' overturned the convictions &mdash; based on coerced [[confession]]s &mdash; of four young black defendants accused of murdering an elderly white man. * '''1944''': ''[[Smith v. Allwright]]'' was an early voting rights case in which the Supreme Court required [[Texas]] to allow African Americans to vote in [[primary election]]s. * '''1946''': ''[[Morgan v. Virginia]]'' [[desegregation|desegregated]] seating on interstate buses. * '''1947''': ''[[Patton v. Mississippi]]'' ruled against strategies that excluded African Americans from [[criminal law|criminal]] [[jury|juries]]. * '''1948''': ''[[Shelley v. Kraemer]]'' overturned [[racial discrimination|racially discriminatory]] [[real estate covenant]]s * '''1948''': ''[[Sipuel v. Board of Regents of Univ. of Okla.]]'' reaffirmed and extended ''Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada'', ruling that [[Oklahoma]] could not bar an African American student from its all-white [[law school]] on the ground that she had not requested the state to provide a separate law school for black students. ====1950s==== * '''1950''': ''[[McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents]]'' ruled against practices of segregation within a formerly all-white graduate school insofar as they interfered with meaningful classroom instruction and interaction with other students. * '''1950''': ''[[Sweatt v. Painter]]'' ruled against a Texas attempt to circumvent ''Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada'' with a hastily established inferior law school for black students. * '''1953''': ''[[Barrows v. Jackson]]'' reaffirmed ''Shelley v. Kraemer'', preventing state courts from enforcing restrictive covenants. * '''1954''': ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' explicitly outlawed ''de jure'' racial segregation of public education facilities. * '''1956''': ''[[Gayle v. Browder]]'' overturned segregation of city buses; ''see also [[Montgomery Bus Boycott]]''. * '''1957''': ''[[Fikes v. Alabama]]'' was a further ruling against forced confessions. * '''1958''': ''[[Cooper v. Aaron]]'' barred [[Arkansas]] [[Governor#United States|Governor]] [[Orval Faubus]] from interfering with the desegregation of [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]]'s [[Little Rock Central High School|Central High School]]; ''see also [[Little Rock Nine]]''. ====1960s==== * '''1961''': ''[[Holmes v. Danner]]'' began the desegregation of the [[University of Georgia]]. * '''1962''': ''[[Meredith v. Fair]]'' won [[James Meredith]] admission to the [[University of Mississippi]] * '''1963''': LDF attorneys defended Martin Luther King, Jr. against [[contempt of court|contempt]] charges for demonstrating without a permit in [[Birmingham, Alabama]]. ''See [[Letter from Birmingham Jail]].'' * '''1963''': ''[[Watson v. City of Memphis]]'' overruled segregation of [[public park]]s. * '''1963''': ''[[Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital]]'' overruled segregation of [[hospital]]s that received Federal construction funds. * '''1964''': ''[[Willis v. Pickrick Restaurant]]'' required [[Lester Maddox]] to integrate his restaurant; he closed it instead. * '''1964''': ''[[McLaughlin v. Florida]]'' ruled against [[anti-miscegenation laws]]. * '''1965''': ''[[Williams v. Wallace]]'' was a federal court order allowing a voting-rights march in Alabama, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which had previously been stopped twice by state police. * '''1965''': ''[[Hamm v. City of Rock Hill]]'' overturned the all convictions of demonstrators for participating in civil rights [[sit-in]]s. * '''1965''': ''[[Abernathy v. Alabama]]'' and ''[[Thomas v. Mississippi]]'' reversed convictions of Alabama and Mississippi [[Freedom Rider]]s on the basis of ''[[Boynton v. Virginia]]''. * '''1967''': ''[[Quarles v. Philip Morris]]'' overturned the practice of "departmental seniority", which had forced non-white workers to give up their seniority rights when they transferred to better jobs in previously white-only departments. * '''1967''': ''[[Green v. County School Board of New Kent County]]'' ruled that "freedom of choice" was an insufficient response to segregated schools. * '''1967''': ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'' ruled that state laws banning interracial marriage ("[[anti-miscegenation laws]]") in Virginia and 15 other states were [[unconstitutional]] because they violated the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]]. * '''1968''': ''[[Newman v. Piggie Park]]'' established that prevailing [[plaintiff]]s in civil rights act cases are entitled to receive [[attorneys' fees]] from the losing [[defendant]]. * '''1969''': ''[[Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education]]'' ruled that a Mississippi school district's foot-dragging with respect to desegregation violated the "all deliberate speed" mandate of ''Brown v. Board of Education''. * '''1969''': ''[[Shuttlesworth v. Birmingham]]'' ruled against using the [[parade]] [[permit]]ting process as a means of suppressing [[First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States|First Amendment]] rights. * '''1969''': ''[[Thorpe v. Housing Authority of Durham]]'' ruled that low-income [[public housing]] [[tenant]]s could not be summarily [[eviction|evicted]]. * '''1969''': ''[[Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp.]]'' required [[due process]] for the [[garnishment]] of wages. * '''1969''': ''[[Allen v. State Board of Elections]]'' guaranteed the right to a [[write-in vote]]. ====1970s==== * '''1970''': ''[[Ali v. The Division of State Athletic Commission]]'' restored [[Muhammad Ali]]'s [[boxing]] license. * '''1970''': ''[[Carter v. Jury Commission]]'' approved Federal suits over discrimination in the selection of juries. * '''1970''': ''[[Turner v. Fouche]]'' overruled a requirement in [[Taliaferro County, Georgia]] that [[grand jury]] and [[school board]] membership be limited to owners of [[real property]]. * '''1971''': ''[[Kennedy-Park Homes Association v. City of Lackawanna]]'' forbade a city government from interfering in the construction of low-income housing in a predominantly white section of the city. * '''1971''': ''[[Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education]]'' upheld intra-district [[busing]] to desegregate public schools. However, this matter would continue in the courts for three more decades; in the most recent [[as of 2004]] related cases, the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2002 refused to review ''Cappachione v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education'' and ''Belk v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education'', in which lower courts had ruled in favor of the school district. * '''1971''': ''[[Haines v. Kerner]]'' upheld the right of [[prison]]ers to challenge prison conditions in federal court. * '''1971''': ''[[Groppi v. Wisconsin]]'' upheld the right of a criminal defendant in a [[misdemeanor]] case to a venue where jurors are not biased against him. * '''1971''': ''[[Clay v. United States]]'' struck down Muhammad Ali's conviction for refusing to report for military service. * '''1971''': ''[[Griggs v. Duke Power Company]]''[http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1964_cra_title_vii_equal_employment_opportunities_42_us_code_chapter_21] ruled that tests for employment or promotion that produce different outcomes for blacks and whites are ''[[prima facie]]'' to be presumed discriminatory, and must measure [[aptitude]] for the job in question or they cannot be used. * '''1971''': ''[[Phillips v. Martin Marietta]]'' ruled that employers may not refuse to hire women with pre-school-aged children unless the same standards are applied to men. * '''1972''': ''[[Furman v. Georgia]]'' ruled that the death penalty as then applied in 37 states violated the [[Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States|Eighth Amendment]] prohibition of [[cruel and unusual punishment]] because there are inadequate standards to guide judges and juries making the decision which defendants will receive a sentence of death. However, under revised laws, U.S. executions resumed in 1977. * '''1972''': ''[[Wright v. Council of the City of Emporia]]'' and ''[[U.S. v. Scotland Neck City Board of Education]]'' ruled against avoiding public school desegregation by the creation of all-white "splinter districts". * '''1972''': ''[[Alexander v. Louisiana]]'' accepted the use of [[statistics|statistical]] evidence to prove racial discrimination in the selection of juries. * '''1972''': ''[[Hawkins v. Town of Shaw]]'' banned discrimination in the provision of municipal facilities. * '''1973''': ''[[Norwood v. Harrison]]'' banned government provision of school books to segregated private schools established to allow whites to avoid public school desegregation. * '''1973''': ''[[Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver]]'' addressed deliberate ''[[de facto]]'' school segregation, ruling that where deliberate segregation was shown to have affected a substantial part of a school system, the entire district must ordinarily be desegregated. * '''1973''': ''[[Adams v. Richardson]]'' required federal education officials to enforce Title VI of the [[1964 Civil Rights Act]], which requires that state universities, public schools, and other institutions that receive federal money may not discriminate by race. * '''1973''': ''[[Ham v. South Carolina]]'' ruled that defendants are entitled to have potential jurors [[voir dire|interrogated]] about whether they harbor racial prejudices. * '''1973''': ''[[McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green]]'' ruled that courts should hear cases of alleged unlawful discrimination based on the "minimal showing" that a qualified non-white applied unsuccessfully for a job that either remained open or was filled by a white person. * '''1973''': ''[[Mourning v. Family Publication Service]]'' upheld the ''[[Truth in Lending]]'' Act, requiring disclosure of the actual cost of a [[loan]]. * '''1975''': ''[[Albemarle v. Moody]]'' mandated back pay for victims of job discrimination. * '''1975''': ''[[Johnson v. Railway Express Agency]]'' upheld the [[Civil Rights Act of 1866]], passed during [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]], as providing an independent remedy for employment discrimination. * '''1977''': ''[[Coker v. Georgia]]'' banned capital punishment for [[rape]], the most racially disproportionate application of the death penalty. * '''1977''': ''[[United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh v. Carey]]'' provided that states ''may'' consider race in drawing electoral districts if necessary to comply with the [[Voting Rights Act]] by avoiding a dilution of minority voting strength. ====1980s==== * '''1980''': ''[[Luévano v. Campbell]]'' struck down Federal government use of a written test for hiring into nearly 200 entry-level positions because the test disproportionately disqualified African Americans and [[Latino]]s. * '''1980''': ''[[Enmund v. Florida]]'' struck down a federal "[[felony murder]]" statute. * '''1982''': ''[[Bob Jones University v. U.S.]]'' and ''[[Goldboro Christian Schools v. U.S.]]'' both denied [[tax exempt]] status to [[religious school]]s that discriminate on the basis of race. * '''1983''': ''[[Major v. Treen]]'' overturned a [[Louisiana]] [[gerrymander]] intended to reduce African-American voting strength. * '''1984''': ''[[Gingles v. Edmisten]]'', continued as ''[[Thornburg v. Gingles]]'' (1986) A [[North Carolina]] state court, later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, ruled that at-large countywide election of state legislators illegally diluted black voting strength. * '''1988''': ''[[Jiggets v. Housing Authority of City of Elizabeth]]'': a [[United States District Court|district court]] ordered the [[United States Department of Housing and Urban Development|HUD]] to spend $4 million to upgrade predominantly black, as well as predominantly white, housing projects in the city, and to implement federal maintenance, tenant selection and other procedures equitably. * '''1989''': ''[[Cook v. Ochsner]]'': in a belated coda to ''Simkins v. Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital'', a District Court approved a settlement ending a [[New Orleans, Louisiana|New Orleans]] hospital's discrimination in [[emergency room]] treatment and patient admissions. The settlement also provided increased opportunities for African-American physicians to practice at the hospital. ====1990s==== * '''1991''': ''[[Chisom v. Roemer]]'' and ''[[Houston Lawyers Association v. Attorney General]]'' established that Voting Rights Act applies to the election of judges. * '''1992''': ''[[Matthews v. Coye]]'' and ''[[Thompson v. Raiford]]'' compelled [[California]] and Texas, respectively, to enforce and implement federal regulations calling for testing of poor children for [[lead poisoning]]. * '''1993''': ''[[Haynes v. Shoney's]]'': A record court-approved settlement in an employment discrimination case. [[Shoney's]] Restaurants agreed to pay African-American employees $105 million and to implement aggressive [[equal employment opportunity]] measures. * '''1994''': ''[[Lawson v. City of Los Angeles]]'' and ''[[Silva v. City of Los Angeles]]'' led to settlements to end discriminatory use of police dogs in minority neighborhoods. * '''1995''': ''[[McKennon v. Nashville Banner]]'': The Supreme Court refused to allow employers to defeat otherwise valid claims of job discrimination by relying on facts they did not know until after the discriminatory decision had been made. * '''1996''': ''[[Sheff v. O'Neill]]'': The Supreme Court of [[Connecticut]], in view of the disparities between [[Hartford, Connecticut|Hartford]] public schools and schools in the surrounding counties, found the state liable for maintaining racial and ethnic isolation, and ordered the legislative and executive branches to propose a remedy. * '''1997''': ''[[Robinson v. Shell Oil Company]]'' determined that a former employee may sue his ex-employer for retaliating against him (by giving a bad [[job reference]]) after he filed discrimination charges over his termination. * '''1998''': ''[[Wright v. Universal Maritime Service Corp.]]'' determined that a general [[arbitration]] clause in a [[collective bargaining]] agreement did not deprive an employee of his right to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws in federal court. * '''1999''': ''[[Campaign to Save Our Public Hospitals v. Giuliani]]'' barred [[New York City]] mayor [[Rudolph Giuliani]]'s attempt to [[privatization|privatize]] public hospitals. ====2000s==== * '''2000''': ''[[Rideau v. Louisiana]]'' threw out the 28-year-old, third conviction of [[Wilbert Rideau]] for murder because of discrimination in the composition of the Grand Jury that originally indicted him more than 40 years earlier ([[As of 2004]] he is still facing a fourth trial). * '''2000''': ''[[Smith v. United States]]'' was resolved when President [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] [[commutation|commuted]] the sentence of [[Kemba_Smith_Foundation|Kemba Smith]]. Smith was a young African-American mother whose abusive, domineering boyfriend led her to play a peripheral role (she did not sell drugs but was aware of the selling) in a conspiracy to obtain and distribute crack cocaine. She had been sentenced to a mandatory minimum of 24½ years in prison even though she was a first-time offender. * '''2000''': ''[[Cromartie v. Hunt]]'' and ''[[Daly v. Hunt]]'' said that it is legal to create, for partisan political reasons, a district with a high concentration of minority voters; hence the North Carolina district from which [[Mel Watt]] was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] was ruled not to be an illegal gerrymander. * '''2003''': ''[[Gratz v. Bollinger]]'' the Supreme Court ordered that the [[University of Michigan]] change its policies by removing racial quotas in the form of "points" but allowed them to continue to utilize race as a factor in admissions, which took race into account in order to admit a diverse entering class of students. * '''2007''': ''[[Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education]]'' In a defeat for the LDF, the Supreme Court ruled racial quotas unconstitutional<ref>http://www.naacpldf.org/timeline.aspx, The official site provides a [[Macromedia Flash|Flash]]-based history of the major cases taken on by the LDF. This article has taken extensive portions of this page with the permission of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., the copyright holder of that material.</ref> ===Prominent LDF Attorneys=== * [[Derrick Bell|Derrick A. Bell, Jr.]], first tenured African American [[Harvard Law School]] [[professor]] and prominent [[Critical Race Theory|Critical Race Theorist]]. * [[Robert L. Carter]], was an assistant general counsel of and later the general counsel of the LDF. He won numerous cases on the LDF's behalf at the Supreme Court. <ref>[http://www.brownat50.org/BrownBios/BioJudgeRbtCarter.html Robert L. Carter<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> * [[Julius L. Chambers]], third director-counsel of the LDF and first African American [[Editor-in-Chief]] of [[University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | University of North Carolina]] Law Review. * [[Marian Wright Edelman]], founder of the [[Children's Defense Fund]]. During the [[Mississippi Freedom Summer]] she headed the LDF’s [[Jackson, Mississippi]] office and handled more than 120 cases.<ref>[http://www.experiencefestival.com/mississippi_freedom_summer Mississippi Freedom Summer<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> * [[Jack Greenberg (lawyer) | Jack Greenberg]], former [[Columbia Law School]] Dean and the LDF's second director-counsel from [[1961]] to [[1984]]. * [[Lani Guinier]], voting rights advocate and first African American woman tenured professor at Harvard Law. * [[Elaine Jones]], successfully argued ''Furman v. Georgia'' and was the LDF's first female director-counsel. <ref>[http://www.tourolaw.edu/about/distinguished_visitors/public_interest_lawyer_in_residence/1997-elaine%20jones.asp 1997-Elaine Jones<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> * [[Bill Lann Lee]], first [[Chinese-American]] [[United States Assistant Attorney General|Assistant Attorney General]] for the [[United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division|Justice Department's Civil Rights Division]].<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E6DC163FF931A25755C0A961958260 Asian-American Is Named To Top Civil Rights Position - New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> * [[Thurgood Marshall]], LDF founder and first African American [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | Supreme Court Justice]]. * [[Constance Baker Motley]], first African American woman to argue before the Supreme Court and to be appointed a [[United States federal courts | Federal Court Judge]]. * [[James Nabrit]], helped to successfully argue ''Brown v. Board'' and was an LDF attorney from [[1959]] – [[1989]]. * [[Deval Patrick]], first African American [[Governor]] of [[Massachusetts]]. * [[Constance L. Rice]], civil rights attorney and activist. ==References== <references /> ==External links== * NAACP-LDF Official Website, http://www.naacpldf.org/ [[Category:1940 establishments]] [[Category:National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|Legal Defense and Educational Fund]] [[Category:Legal defense organizations]]