NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Robert T. Palmer

The National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), was founded in 1940. Since its inception, the LDF has used advocacy and litigation in the context of education, voter protection, economic justice, and criminal justice to fight against racial inequalities, with the goal of helping to reinforce the preamble of the Declaration of Independence: “All men [and women] are created equal.” Under the stewardship of Thurgood Marshall, the LDF's first director-counsel, the LDF received a favorable decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down “separate but equal,” a doctrine stemming from Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), in elementary and secondary schools, in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka, Kansas (1954). This entry looks at the organization and the lawsuits it has conducted in the area of school desegregation and other civil rights issues. Marshall, who was appointed chief ...

Users without subscription are not able to see the full content on this title. Please, subscribe or login to access all content on this website.