SHUT DOWN
Benjamin Levett, 6, runs his hands through the fountain of the Civil Rights Memorial during a memorial honoring civil rights leader Julian Bond held at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. On Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. (Photo: Albert Cesare / Advertiser)
The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund invests in the next generation of civil rights attorneys – and they make sure these newly trained attorneys are helping to help the black communities of the south.
Ten people were selected for the inaugural cohort of the LDF’s Marshall Motley Fellowship Program. All 10 scholars are black and either come from the south or grew up in the south. The program is named after LDF founder Thurgood Marshall, America’s first black Supreme Court judge, and Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman to serve as a federal judge.
The scholarship holders receive a full law scholarship that covers tuition, room and board, as well as internship and scholarship opportunities at regional civil rights organizations. The program also requires academics to spend the first eight years of their careers practicing law and serving black communities in the south.
In a statement, the LDF said the program was “a focused effort to support the civil rights ecosystem in the south,” in which freedom fighters once marched against segregation and inequality.
LDF President and Director Sherrilyn Ifill said the MMSP “came into being at just the right time in our history” as southern lawmakers debated bills that could suppress voter turnout, especially in black communities.
“Black rights in the US and the power our communities have amassed have been attacked again,” Ifill said in the statement. “As we have seen in recent months, our democracy requires vigilant protection, especially for the black communities in the south, which have not yet realized the full and unqualified protection of this nation’s laws and ideals.”
The 10 scientists who want to campaign for racial justice in the region come from different backgrounds. Markus Reneau is a native of New Orleans who works as an investigator for Orleans Public Defenders. Shandrea Sellers is from the civil rights capital of Montgomery, Alabama and is the assistant principal of a high school trying to disrupt the school-prison pipeline. Brianna Hayes, of Baxley, Georgia, became more politically active after Ahmaud Arbery was persecuted and fatally shot in her judicial district by three white men in 2020. She then founded a grassroots organization to increase the turnout of blacks in her district.
Overcoming obstacles to the fight for black citizens’ rights
The 10 scholars are accused of breaking down systemic barriers and fighting for the rights of black citizens, but the program will also help scholars overcome their own barrier.
Law education can be expensive, and law student loans disproportionately affect color students and can drive them out of the field, according to the American Bar Association.
“This is a critical step in enabling our academics to pursue their careers as civil rights advocates, unencumbered by the growing student debt crisis in this country, while also providing them with professional development experience so that they can become effective civil rights advocates said Janai Nelson, LDF Associate Director-Counsel.
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This cohort is the first of its kind for LDF, but not the last. Over the next five years, 50 scientists will be selected and trained to carry the torch of civil rights representation in the south.
Joel Motley, son of Judge Constance Baker Motley, commended the LDF and its scholars for continuing to fight for equality.
“In the few months since the MMSP was launched by the LDF, we’ve seen increasing attacks on civil and human rights – from laws that suppress voters to criminalizing the right to protest under the First Amendment,” said Motley. “I am encouraged to know that these scholars continue my mother’s work and will represent the churches in the South with pride, diligence and the vision that is needed to transform our nation.”
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