The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Table of Contents

• Introduction

Executive Branch

• Looking Forward to New Blood in Washington
• Interview with Bob Edgar

On the Hill

• The Americans With Disabilities Act, Act Two
• As Home Foreclosures Climb, Efforts to Help Troubled Homeowners Continue
• The Year in Judicial and Executive Nominations
• Advocating for Federal Leadership on Education
• Facing New Challenges with the 2010 Census
• Modernizing the Federal Poverty Measure
• Piecemeal Legislation, Raids Take Place of Immigration Overhaul
• Below the Surface
• Interview with Kathryn Kolbert

In the Courts

• Wrapping up the Supreme Court’s 2007-2008 Term

In the States

• Colorado: Battleground for More Than Just the Presidency.
• Interview with Lilly Ledbetter

Leadership Conference Activities

• Preventing a Digital TV Divide
• Examining the State of Fair Housing in the 21st Century
• Bringing Diverse Communities Together
• 32nd Annual Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award Dinner
• Interview with John Payton

Interview with John Payton of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Civil Rights Monitor: Why did you decide to take your current position as the head of a major civil rights organization?

John Payton: The mission of LDF is to see that African Americans become full, equal and thriving participants in our democracy. For the last several decades, LDF has fought to make this a better country and a truer democracy for every single person in this country. Our democracy has never needed LDF more than it needs it today to achieve promises and possibilities not yet realized. I accepted the position of president and director-counsel at LDF because there is no other organization doing more to wrestle with and resolve the great challenges that our country continues to face with respect to race, equality and power.

At LDF we are aggressively engaged in addressing the most significant and fundamental racial problems in our society, problems that undermine the health and viability of our democracy. In my new role, I have the opportunity to help lead the oldest – and we believe finest – civil rights organization on behalf of Black America in the pursuit of solutions to the ongoing problems of race in America.

Civil Rights Monitor: Looking forward, what are the issues with which your organization will be most concerned?

John Payton: While our country faces significant challenges today with respect to racial equality, one need only look at the state of public schools in our inner cities to see the enormity and complexity of those challenges. While we celebrate education, only about half of the children in our inner city schools graduate from high school. In some cities the graduation rate is much lower: Detroit, 25 percent; Cleveland, 34 percent; Baltimore, 35 percent; and in New York it is 45 percent. The average of the 50 largest school districts is 52 percent. The kids that are not graduating are disproportionately African American, and these are catastrophic numbers.

The consequences of this failure are profound as education is the gateway to opportunity. The premium associated with education in the job market is so significant that the lack of such an education is now frequently disqualifying. Today, our inner city schools fail more often than they succeed in providing their students – those who do not graduate and those who do graduate – with the skills necessary for them to participate in our economy or our society.

Many of those kids failed by their schools will be unable to perform any role in our economic life. Many will end up in the pipeline from these failed schools to the criminal justice system: the school to prison pipeline. Those entangled in the criminal justice system may be denied their right to counsel and, in some states, could face the permanent or temporary loss of their fundamental right to vote. Those with convictions may encounter difficulty getting access to employment opportunities and suffer other consequences that result from having a criminal record.

Indeed, without a quality education, our students today will encounter problems that touch on virtually every area of LDF’s core practice: education, criminal justice, economic justice and political participation. In short, the vortex of the failure of our public schools is spinning out serious problems across our society, and LDF is engaged in identifying solutions to the problems in every aspect.

Civil Rights Monitor: Can you talk a little bit about why you think civil rights issues are still important issues in the 21st century?

John Payton: Despite the progress we have seen since the Civil Rights Movement and the passage of the1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the 21st century still continues to present significant challenges. In many ways, the problems of race have grown more challenging. We now frequently see large metropolitan areas characterized by minority urban cores surrounded by white suburbs. Many of those inner cities and their tax bases are deteriorating; the student population of those inner city public school systems is increasingly African American or Hispanic. The inner city schools are not providing the students with the high quality education that today’s complex, globalized economy requires.

The problems that LDF continues to fight are important if we are to ever achieve the promise of our democracy. I recognize the progress that has been achieved but have not allowed that to distort the reality of the challenges that remain. In this year alone, LDF has filed litigation, pursued advocacy or mounted public education campaigns against a range of issues that illustrate the deep-seated nature and complexity of the ongoing problem of race in our society.

In the political participation context, we have fought against restrictive, government-issued photo identification requirements that have been adopted in a number of states and remain focused on the important goal of preparing voters to overcome the barriers that may stand between them and the ballot box during the upcoming November election. We have also been defending a core provision of the Voting Rights Act against a constitutional attack in a case that will be heard by the Supreme Court next year.

In the criminal justice context, we recently challenged the failure to provide counsel to indigent persons in their first appearance before the Circuit Court in the City of Baltimore; and successfully persuaded a federal court to overturn the death sentence of a Herbert Williams, an African-American man who sat on death row for nearly 20 years, in a which the sentencing judge and jury were not given the opportunity to hear all of the evidence that weighed in favor of saving his life.

And, in a groundbreaking action, our Economic Justice Project successfully settled a federal class action lawsuit that required New York City to pay more than $21 million to settle claims stemming from alleged race and national origin discrimination against the New York City Parks Department. Our Education Project has been actively involved in challenging targeted campaigns to roll back civil rights nationwide – campaigns spearheaded by wealthy California businessman Ward Connerly and his deceptively named "American Civil Rights Institute" (ACRI); and our Katrina Project continues to find new ways to resolve the ongoing crises faced by persons throughout the Gulf region in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. While this by no means covers the full breadth and work of LDF in the last year, these examples illustrate the complexity of the challenges that we continue to face in the 21st century.

Civil Rights Monitor: What do you think are the biggest challenges you and your organization face in doing the work that you do?

John Payton: The problems of race and inequality in our country have proven to be enduring and deep-seated in nature. Long term solutions for these problems of justice and equality will require far-reaching change. LDF has a unique role to play and decades of experience in developing strategies that have had a profound impact on our society. But we must recognize that this is a marathon and not a race if we are to find solutions that will work. The challenge is figuring out how to best leverage the momentum of communities across the country in the broader fight for equality and human rights. In my view, our democracy has never needed LDF more than it needs it today to achieve promises and possibilities not yet realized.

Civil Rights Monitor: Can you talk a little about why it’s important for you and your organization to be a part of the LCCR coalition?

John Payton: The LCCR plays a critical role in the civil rights movement of the 21st century helping to unite the voices and amplify the messages of those organizations that are engaged in the struggle for equality. LCCR helps facilitate the coalition-building and cross-collaboration necessary to help educate all Americans about the challenges that the civil rights community face today. LDF shares LCCR’s longstanding commitment to fostering a fuller understanding and celebration of our nation's diversity, and remains an active participant and loyal member of the LCCR coalition.

John Payton is the new director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, December 2007