Yale alumnus Markus Reneau ’19 is among the 10 people named first Marshall Motley Fellows by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. (LDF). The scholarship covers the cost of a law degree to train the next generation of civil rights attorneys in the southern United States.
The LDF announced the Marshall-Motley Scholars on May 17th, the 67th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in the Brown v Board of Education case. The Marshall-Motley Scholars Program (MMSP) is named in honor of Supreme Court Justice, civil rights attorney and LDF founder Thurgood Marshall, and civil rights attorney Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman to serve as a federal judge.
Marshall Motley Fellows commit to devoting the first eight years of their careers to exercising civil rights in the service of black communities in the South.
“The MMSP was launched at just the right time in our history as black rights in the United States and the power that our communities have amassed have been attacked again, ”said LDF President and Director Advisor Sherrilyn Hill. “As we have seen in recent months, our democracy requires vigilant protection, especially for black communities in the south who have not yet realized the full and unqualified protection of this nation’s laws and ideals.
“The first MMSP cohort, and those who will follow, will play a key role in addressing these ever-evolving threats to democracy and justice. We are proud of these 10 fellows and look forward to helping them carry on the legacies of Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley and the many unsung heroes of the civil rights attorney. ”
New Orleans-born Reneau is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina. His interest in civil rights litigation began the day Trayvon Martin was murdered on February 26, 2012, Reneau’s 15th birthday.
At Yale, Reneau joined the Urban Improvement Corps to tutor local children entering college. He also worked with the Leadership, Education, and Athletics and Partnership (LEAP) tutoring program, which is based on the belief that children learn in many ways other than classroom teaching. Upon graduation, Reneau was a Yale Fellow at Oakham School in England, where he was the only black teacher and one of the few black people in the town of Oakham.
Reneau, who will attend Howard University School of Law, is currently an investigator for the Orleans Public Defenders. In his role as Commissioner for the 2020 Presidential Election, he explained many details to black voters that would otherwise have prevented them from voting, including searching the New Orleans voter database, helping them locate their district, and helping those who the provisional votes had to cast ballot papers.
Over the next five years, the LDF MMSP will invest in training a total of 50 aspiring civil rights attorneys who stand up on behalf of the black communities in the south. Fellows are granted a full law scholarship for tuition, room and board, and incidental expenses to help reduce the debt burden that can prevent future attorneys from pursuing careers as civil attorneys. They also receive summer internships with national and regional civil rights organizations with offices in the South focusing on racial justice, a two-year postgraduate scholarship with civil rights organizations in the South, and access to special training provided by LDF and the National Academy of Sciences.
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