NO 1 ISSUE 28
BRINGING YOU ENLIGHTENING, EDUCATIONAL, EMPOWERING, INSPIRING, THOUGHT-PROVOKING INFORMATION
MARCH 23 , 2012
Remembering a giant for justice John Payton In Memoriam: 1946 - 2012 NEW YORK,-- John Payton, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and a tireless advocate for justice, equality, and opportunity, died late Thursday after a brief illness. He was 65. LDF is deeply saddened and mourns this tragic loss. President Barack Obama issued this statement: “Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of our dear friend John Payton. As president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, John led the organization’s involvement in five Supreme Court cases. A true champion of equality, he helped protect civil rights in the classroom and at the ballot box. The legal community has lost a legend, and while we mourn John's passing, we will never forget his courage and fierce opposition to discrimination in all its forms. Our thoughts and prayers go out to John’s family, the many students he taught, and those who love him.” Mr. Payton was the 7th leader of LDF, the nation's first and preeminent civil rights law firm. During his tenure he guided the organization to resounding legal victories, including Lewis v. City of Chicago, which vindicated the rights of over 6,000 applicants who sought to become firefighters in the City of Chicago, and Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder, which turned back a challenge to the constitutionality of a core provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To the LDF staff and to a great many others, he was fearless – a guiding light, a brilliant advocate, a mentor and teacher who believed that American democracy thrives when it embraces all of our voices. LDF extends its deepest
condolences to John's wife, awarded him the Charles Gay McDougall, and Hamilton Houston would like to express its Medallion of Merit. gratitude to her for sharing Widely considered one of John with us. the country's most skilled A native of Los Angeles members of the Supreme and a graduate of Pomona Court bar, John Payton's College and Harvard Law enduring legacy will be his School, Mr. Payton forged commitment to a principle a brilliant career as a articulated by LDF's corporate attorney at the founder, Charles Hamilton firm of Wilmer Hale where Houston. "What I am more he headed the firm's concerned about," Houston John Payton Litigation Department. But said, "is that the Negro shall he also always exercised a deep not be content simply with demanding an commitment to public service through his equal share in the existing system. It pro bono work at the firm. He took leave seems to me that his historical challenge from Wilmer during the early 1990s to is to make sure that the system [that] shall serve as the Corporation Counsel of the survive in the United States of America District of Columbia. He was president of shall be a system which guarantees justice the District of Columbia Bar from 2001 to and freedom for everyone. 2002, a member of the American Law “LDF's work will go on, in just the way Institute, a Fellow of the American Bar that John would have wanted.” Foundation, and a Master in the Edward Ralph B. Everett, Esq., President and Coke Appellate Inn of Court. He was also CEO, Joint Center for Political and affiliated with a number of civil rights and Economic Studies, said, human rights organizations. John demonstrated his signature brilliance as lead counsel for the University of Michigan, handling two high-profile cases in the trial court and in the court of appeals and arguing Gratz v. Bollinger in the Supreme Court. The landmark companion case, Grutter v. Bollinger, in which the Supreme Court upheld raceconscious admissions in higher education, represented the vindication of a strategy, devised and implemented over more than six years to support the educational benefits of diversity. In 2010 the National Law Journal named John to its list of "The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers." The Washington (D.C.) Bar Association
We mourn the death of civil rights champion John Payton. As President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), he was a tireless and enormously effective advocate in the struggle to advance voting rights and to eliminate discrimination. Even before joining LDF, John had firmly established himself as one of the legal community’s leading lights and as a courageous leader in the effort to help our country live up to its promise of equal justice and opportunity for all. He was a friend and mentor to many in the civil rights and legal c o m m u n i t i e s . We j o i n t h e m i n remembering John’s many contributions to building a better America, and we express our deepest sympathies to his family.
Editor’s Note: No longer wi! I open my mailbox to poignant messages "om Mr. Payton. Sti! his work goes on and the stru$les continue. We must each step up and do more
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