NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., (LDF) is a public interest law firm and civil rights organization in the United States. Founded by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the LDF uses legal action to ensure equality and empowerment for African Americans and other minority groups. It is active in such fields as education, civic participation, economic opportunity, and criminal justice. The fund also distributes information, forms alliances with other organizations, monitors government policy, and sponsors educational scholarship programs.
The NAACP established the LDF in 1940. Thurgood Marshall, who would later become the first black justice on the Supreme Court of the United States, became the LDF’s first director-counsel. One of the LDF’s most famous victories was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954). In this case, argued by Marshall and others, the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This ruling led the way for further removal of government-approved discrimination. The LDF also represented Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights activists.
The LDF has operated independently from the NAACP since 1957. Its headquarters are in New York City.
See also Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ; Marshall, Thurgood ; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) .
