Sherrilyn Ifill, the seventh President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., will be the featured speaker at the third Celebratory Dinner Honoring the Legacy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Thursday, October 17th, 2013. The reception starts at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. Maureen Bunyan of ABC7/WJLA TV will be the evening’s Mistress of Ceremonies.
Ms. Ifill, a graduate of Vassar College and New York University School of Law, served first as a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and then for five years as an assistant counsel in LDF’s New York office, where she litigated voting rights cases. Among her successful litigation was the landmark Voting Rights Act case Houston Lawyers’ Association vs. Attorney General of Texas, in which the Supreme Court held that judicial elections are covered by the provisions of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
From her base in Baltimore, Ms. Ifill has emerged as a highly regarded national civil rights strategist and public intellectual whose writings, speeches, and media appearances enrich public debate about a range of political and civil rights issues. Her scholarly writings have focused on the importance of diversity on the bench. In fact, she is currently writing a book about race and Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Ms. Ifill is the immediate past Chair of the Board of one of the largest philanthropic supporters of civil rights and social justice organizations in the country, U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute.
Tickets and sponsorship opportunities for the event are still available. For more information, please contact St. Augustine’s at 202.544.3222 or email at rector@staugustinesdc.org.
By: Floyd Nelson Jr.