The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the country’s first civil and human rights law firm, was founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The organization was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled by widespread state-sponsored racial inequality. From that era to the present, LDF has sought structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in an inclusive society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans.
Sherrilyn Ifill is the seventh President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Ifill served first as a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and then for five years as an assistant counsel in LDF’s New York office, where she litigated voting rights cases. Among her successful litigation was the landmark Voting Rights Act case, Houston Lawyers Association v. Attorney General of Texas, in which the Supreme Court held that judicial elections are covered by the provisions of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
As the legal arm of the civil rights movement, LDF has a tradition of expert legal advocacy in the Supreme Court and other courts across the nation. In one of the organization’s first cases in 1940, LDF secured a vital decision that required equal pay for black and white teachers. LDF’s education docket has involved seminal Supreme Court decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education, and it has been involved in nearly all of the precedent-setting litigation relating to minority voting rights. Its legal victories established the foundation for many of the civil rights that Americans enjoy today.
LDF works in four key areas: Criminal Justice, Economic Justice, Education, and Political Participation. Among its current priorities, LDF seeks to ensure: that the job selection process does not negatively impact African-Americans; that employment barriers to those with criminal records are reduced; that disproportionate incarceration and sentencing as well as racially biased exercise of discretion by police and prosecutors are decreased; that equity in education is advanced by increasing graduation rates (K-12 and college) among African-Americans; that racially equitable and research-based approaches to school discipline are fostered and adopted; that more African-American engagement and fairness in the next round of redistricting are achieved; and that compliance with the Voting Rights Act, NVRA, and other voting rights laws is ensured..
LDF works through the courts and through advocacy to the executive and legislative branches, educational outreach, monitoring of federal and state government activity, coalition building and policy research. In addition, through its scholarship, fellowship, and internship programs, LDF helps high school students get into, attend and graduate from many of the nation’s best colleges, universities, and law schools and to develop a lasting commitment to racial justice and public service.
The WashingtonD.C. office serves as the advocacy branch of LDF, monitoring civil rights legislative issues before Congress and federal agencies responsible for civil rights enforcement, working to strengthen civil rights laws and opposing efforts to undermine them, and defending the gains and protections won over the course of LDF’s 74-year history.