
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
(LDF)
http://www.naacpldf.org
Founded in 1940 under the leadership or the late Thurgood
Marshall, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's oldest
organization fighting for equal rights. It is based in New
York and maintains offices in Washington, D.C. and Los
Angeles. LDF litigates civil rights issues, provides
policymakers and Members of Congress with information and
advice on civil rights legislation, prods federal agencies to
enforce civil rights laws, monitors key Presidential
appointments and educates the pubic on civil rights. LDF's
Western Regional Office has been involved in high-profile
battles over police brutality and anti-black bias in Los
Angeles.
Elaine R.
Jones
President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and
Educational Fund (LDF) Ms. Jones took the helm of LDF in
1993. She brought with her two decades of experience as a
litigator and civil rights activist. An honors graduate of
Howard University, Ms. Jones joined the Peace Corps and
became one of the first African Americans to serve in Turkey.
She blazed trails becoming one of the first African American
women to defend death row inmates and argued capital cases
throughout the South. She was named special assistant to U.S.
Secretary of Transportation, William T. Coleman. Ms. Jones is
a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the
District of Columbia Court of Appeals; U. S. District Courts
for the Eastern District of Virginia and the District of
Columbia; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, and
Eleventh Circuits; and the Supreme Court of the United
States.