NPR reports…
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund is launching a scholarship program designed to produce a new team of civil rights advocates working for racial justice in the South.
Unveiled on Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the program will offer free tuition and room and board, a commitment intended to remove barriers for students deterred by the steep costs of law school.
Once their program ends, the Marshall-Motley Scholars — named after a pair of the LDF’s most preeminent alumni, the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and the first Black woman federal judge, Constance Baker Motley — will commit to working on civil rights law in the South for at least eight years.
The South remains where the majority of Black people in America live and where the majority of the litigation the LDF pursues is based, its leaders said.
“At this moment, the South is a place of tremendous activism, it’s a place of political transformation, and it is a region that is in need of a strengthened core of civil rights attorneys,” LDF President Sherrilyn Ifill said. “There are courageous, amazing civil rights attorneys doing incredible work in the South at this moment and we want to make sure that core strength is going forward in the future.”
Ultimately, their work could focus on voting rights; addressing injustice in the criminal justice system; housing and educational disparities; and other cases that emerge from the region.
The new program carries echoes of LDF scholarships and fellowships dating to the 1960s and ’70s, which provided financial support and paid for expensive law books, that helped start some of the first Black and interracial law firms in the South.
“This program really feels like it picks up that historical thread,” Ifill added.
Jino Ray, who will direct the scholars program, said it will support 10 incoming students for the next five years, through law school, summer internships, a two-year fellowship program and special training sessions.
“The goal here is to leave nothing to chance related to their ability to pay for law school, focus on their education and focus on getting the highest level of training possible so they can spend the time in the field once they get down to the South actually doing the work they’re passionate about, and that’s serving the community,” Ray said.
The American Bar Association has found the cost of law school has risen 175% since 1985, and pressure from student loans can disproportionately lead Black lawyers to take unwanted career paths, the LDF said.
Joel Motley, the son of the late judge after whom the program is named, said now is the time to build the next generation of civil rights lawyers.
“As deeply concerning recent events have made clear, there is much work to be done to ensure equal rights for Black Americans,” Motley said.
Here’s the press release
MARSHALL-MOTLEY SCHOLARS PROGRAM Join the next generation of civil rights lawyers
Named in honor of the legendary civil rights attorney and LDF founder Thurgood Marshall, and iconic civil rights litigator Constance Baker Motley, the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program (MMSP) is a groundbreaking commitment to endow the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy of unparalleled excellence.
Fighting for racial justice and equity, Serving Black communities in the south
This moment in our nation calls for a full complement of highly-trained and dedicated civil rights lawyers prepared to meet the challenges we confront and serve our communities with excellence. Established by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the MMSP is committed to identifying and investing in the next generation of aspiring lawyers dedicated to pursuing racial justice in the South, and for whom this work is a personal and professional calling.
The MMSP will support and develop the next wave of civil rights lawyers in the South, where the majority of Black Americans live. Over the next five years, we will invest in the establishment of a corps of 50 civil rights attorneys equipped and prepared to advocate on behalf of Black communities in the South seeking racial justice and equity.
Scholars who demonstrate a commitment to this mission will be afforded:
- A full law school scholarship for tuition, room and board, and incidentals to alleviate the debt burden that can prevent future lawyers from pursuing a career as a civil rights lawyer;
- Summer internships with national and regional civil rights organizations with offices in the South focused on racial justice to jumpstart training in civil rights law;
- Two-year postgraduate fellowship at civil rights law organizations in the South fighting to achieve racial justice; and
- Access to special trainings sponsored by LDF and the National Academy of Sciences.
