Elaine Jones
LDF 4th President & Director-Counsel
Elaine R. Jones became the fourth President and Director-Counsel of LDF and the first woman to lead the organization. She is also the first Director-Counsel to assume the additional role of President of LDF. She served until 2004.
Transcript
It's what I call this relay race of justice, this whole notion of one generation passing the baton to the next. Each one of you has to cover a certain distance, and you have an obligation not to drop the baton, and you have an obligation to cover some ground. You have an obligation to run and to run forward, not to run backwards, not to run sideways, to cover some distance. And then you've got to hand it off to the generation that follows you. But we can't break faith. We look at those who came before us, who had so much less than we had. We have an obligation to go back. For we who believe in justice, this is no time to rest. We've got an obligation to give people hope. For we who believe in justice. This is the time to stand up. To let people know, White and Black America know, look, we can do it. For we who believe in justice. Now's the time.
Transcript
LDF and the lawyers that prepared the Brown cases, dared to imagine justice as colorblind. Their accomplishments have been essential to our collective dream of freedom. As I think about the recent voting in South Africa, where Black people, for the first time in 300 years, go to the polls, I reflect on the 40th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, and what it has meant not only to African Americans, but to all Americans, because Brown was a decision which really rid this country of legal racial apartheid. When Brown was announced, I recall how elated we all were that the Supreme Court was at last speaking out about the meaning of the Constitution and giving hope to all of us that we too, would be able to become a meaningful part of the society.
Transcript
There are many laws on the books today which just would be meaningless if there were not someone around to make sure that they were enforced. You can pass them all you like, but if you don't have someone like LDF to keep people honest, it's meaningless. We must work so that women and men and boys and girls in this nation can live together without fear of the rampant violence that we have, and with a healthy respect for the rights of all of us.
