The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) has announced the inaugural 10-person cohort of the Marshall Motley-Scholars Program. Launched in January (2021), the pipeline program aims to equip the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy of unparalleled excellence.
The groundbreaking program is named in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the trailblazing Supreme Court justice, legendary civil rights attorney, and LDF founder; and Constance Baker Motley, the iconic civil rights litigator and first Black woman to serve as a federal judge.
Sherrilyn Ifill, LDF President and Director-Counsel noted that the program is timely, citing renewed attacks on the rights of Black people and communities in the U.S. “As we have seen over the last several months, our democracy requires vigilant protection, particularly for Black communities in the South, which have yet to realize the full and unqualified protection of this nation’s laws and ideals,” she said. The cohort and those that will follow, Ifill added, will play a key role in addressing “threats to democracy and justice,” while carrying on the legacies of Marshall, Baker Motley and the many “unsung heroes of civil rights advocacy.”