Elaine R. Jones, who served as the first woman president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1993 to 2004 and championed a number of groundbreaking civil rights cases over a career spanning three decades, will deliver the keynote address at Elon University School of Law's third annual Martin Luther King, Jr. forum on Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. in the law library.
EVENT DETAILS
The forum is free and open to the public and is sponsored in part by the Law School Admission Council as part of DiscoverLaw.org Month.
The School of Law has invited high school and undergraduate students interested in the study of law to attend this event. By introducing future law students to legal concepts and constructs, the School of Law seeks to foster an appreciation for the range of insight and academic rigor required to enter law school, as well as an appreciation for opportunities available for groups currently underrepresented within the legal profession.
The Elon School of Law is located at 201 North Greene Street in downtown Greensboro.
ELAINE R. JONES
Jones served for 32 years with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), the nation’s oldest law firm fighting for equal rights and justice for people of color, women, and the poor. She began her career representing death row defendants in the South and was counselor of record in Furman v. Georgia. That 1972 Supreme Court ruling overturned the sentences of 629 death row defendants because of racial bias in the sentencing process.
Since that time, her achievements in championing civil rights cases and shaping civil rights jurisprudence more broadly are numerous, as detailed by LDF Board of Directors members Julius L. Chambers and Martin D. Payson, “As President and Director-Counsel, Elaine Jones expanded LDF’s litigation into new areas such as health care and environmental justice, while keeping the organization focused on its core work in education, voting rights, economic access and criminal justice. Under her leadership LDF took on the big cases…and she brought home victories.”
After graduating with honors in political science from Howard University and becoming one of the first African Americans to serve in Turkey through the Peace Corps, Jones became the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law. She is also the first African American to serve on the board of governors of the American Bar Association.