The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund just announced a new scholarship program created with the help of a single anonymous donor.
What We Know:
- The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund announced on Monday that they would be introducing a new scholarship called the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program. The program aims to create 50 new civil rights lawyers funded by a single 40 million dollar donation.
- The scholarship will pay the law school tuition for 50 scholars in exchange for an eight-year commitment towards racial justice work, specifically in the South. After graduating from law school, participants must spend their first two years working in a fellowship with the civil rights organization of their choice.
- The program was named after Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Constance Baker Motley. Marshall founded the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 1940 and became the first Black Supreme Court Justice in 1967. Motley served as Marshall’s law clerk, aiding him in Brown v. Board of Education’s ground-breaking case that outlawed segregation in public schools. Motley was later appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and became the first Black woman federal judge.
- The NAACP chose Martin Luther King Day to announce the project to fight against racial injustice and increasing violence across the nation.
- Reverend Bernice King showed her support in a statement saying, “Our country continues to be plagued with racial injustice, and we need Nonviolent Warriors who are prepared and equipped on all fronts to deal with it – especially on the legal front. It will allow the LDF to make greater strides on behalf of the Black community for generations to come in the area of racial justice, just as they did during the movement led by my parents.”
We remain hopeful for the future and look forward to seeing the strides these scholars will make in the fight for racial equality.
