Elaine R. Jones

As the Legal Defense Fund’s first female leader, Ms. Jones has inspired others with her passion for fairness and equality that dates back to her childhood.

In 1993, when Elaine R. Jones took the helm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense Fund (LDF), she brought with her two decades of experience as a litigator and civil rights activist. As President and Director-Counsel of the nation’s foremost civil rights organization working for equal rights under the law, she has been able to carry out a childhood commitment to justice.

Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Ms. Jones came of age in the Jim Crow South and learned its painful lessons early on. Her mother was a college-educated schoolteacher and her father was a Pullman porter and a member of the nation's first black trade union. Her parents taught her about the realities of racism, but also about the importance of idealism.

“I knew from the age of eight that I wanted to be a lawyer because I saw so much wrong in the world,” Ms. Jones recalls. “Black people were sitting in the back of the bus, going to segregated schools, and were afraid of policemen in their communities. It made me say to myself, what can I do to change this?”

Knowing that lawyers were able to right the wrong, she was determined even as a child to commit her life to the pursuit of equal justice.

“My parents always encouraged me,” she explains. “They never said, ‘You can't be a lawyer.’ They were behind me and my brother and sister in anything we wanted to do with our lives.”

After graduating with honors in political science from Howard University, Ms. Jones joined the Peace Corps and became one of the first African Americans to serve in Turkey. This began a long series of "firsts" in her career. Following her two-year Peace Corps stint, she became the first black woman to enroll in the University of Virginia School of Law, and was its first female African-American graduate.

Ms. Jones was invited to join one of Wall Street's most prestigious firms after her graduation in 1970 - a highly unusual offer at that time. She turned it down to pursue the goal she had chosen as a girl, and immediately joined the Legal Defense Fund's staff. With the exception of two years in a government post, she has remained with LDF ever since.

Initially the litigation arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the LDF has been a separate entity for over 40 years. In her early years at LDF, Ms. Jones continued to blaze trails, becoming one of the first African-American women to defend death row inmates. In the face of harassment by the Ku Klux Klan and effrontery from a biased and disdainful legal system, she argued capital cases throughout the South. In 1972, only two years out of law school, she was counsel of record in Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972), a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that abolished the death penalty in 37 states.

“Of the many cases I've been involved in during my career with LDF, I am especially proud of my work in Furman v. Georgia,” says Ms. Jones.

During this period, she also argued numerous employment discrimination cases, including class actions against some of the nation's largest employers (e.g., Patterson v. American Tobacco Co., Stallworth v. Monsanto, and Swint v. Pullman Standard). Ms. Jones gained administrative experience as LDF's managing attorney from 1973-1975.

In 1975, Ms. Jones was named special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation William T. Coleman, Jr. (who currently serves as LDF Chairman Emeritus). In addition to her role in building actual roads and bridges, she helped create metaphorical paths - for instance, taking the lead in crafting policy that opened the U.S. Coast Guard to women.

Ms. Jones returned to the Legal Defense Fund in 1977. In yet another “first,” she originated the position of legislative advocate in LDF’s Washington, DC office. In that capacity, she earned a reputation as a skillful negotiator and an ardent voice for those who have been shut out of the economic, political, and social mainstream. While continuing her litigation efforts, Ms. Jones undertook a broad array of responsibilities: providing briefings and expert testimony to congressional staffs and committees; monitoring and working to confirm or defeat federal judicial appointees; building bridges from the civil rights movement to women's business, and other groups; and furthering the expansion of civil rights through legislation. Her work was instrumental in reshaping of the federal judiciary to include more people of color and more judges committed to equal rights. She also played a key role in securing passage of legislative milestones such as the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1982, the Fair Housing Act of 1988, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

Under her direction, the Legal Defense Fund has broadened its mission to include emerging priorities - such as environmental justice, and health care reform - while continuing the longstanding struggles for educational equity, fair employment, voting rights, fair housing, and unbiased administration of the criminal justice system.

As President and Director-Counsel of the nation’s foremost civil rights organization working for equal rights, Ms. Jones has accomplished many things. She is most proud, however, of the LDF’s contributions to the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1992, and the Fair Housing Act of 1988.

“I am honored to be the first woman to head the Legal Defense Fund, following in the footsteps of LDF's founder, Thurgood Marshall. It allows me to bring a new perspective to our work,” Ms. Jones explains. “In LDF's work today, I believe that we are truly making an impact on educational opportunities for thousands of black and brown students through our litigation of several affirmative action higher education cases.”

In 1989, Ms. Jones broke another barrier, becoming the first African American elected to the America Bar Association Board of Governors. Her term ended in 1992; she continues to sit on the ABA's Council on Individual Rights and Responsibilities. She is active in the Old Dominion Bar Association (Virginia) and the National Bar Association (first female recipient of its Founder's Award, C. Francis Stradford-1925), and is a former board member of the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. Ms. Jones is also a member of the executive committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the board of the National Women's Law Center.

Ms. Jones's leadership in the struggle for equality has earned her numerous awards. Some of the groups that have honored her are the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the National Association of Black Women Attorneys.

A teacher and mentor, Ms. Jones has been a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics and a guest lecturer at the law schools of American University, Georgetown University, the College of William and Mary, and Oxford.

Asked what advice she would give young people today who are considering becoming a lawyer, Ms. Jones urges them to seriously consider pursuing a career in public interest law.

“Public interest law may not be as lucrative as corporate law, and it can be frustrating in today's political and social climate,” admits Ms. Jones, “but knowing that you have made a difference in people's lives has its own currency and emotional reward.”

Acknowledgements
Permission to use the above image of Elaine Jones was granted by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

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