Meet the Second Cohort of Marshall-Motley Scholars!
LDF announced its second 10-person cohort of the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program (MMSP). Launched in January 2021, LDF’s groundbreaking pipeline program will endow the South with the next generation of civil rights lawyers trained to provide legal advocacy of unparalleled excellence in the pursuit of racial justice.
In exchange for a full law school scholarship and professional development, scholars commit to devoting the first eight years of their career to practicing civil rights law in service of Black communities in the South. The program is named in honor of Supreme Court Justice, legendary civil rights attorney and LDF founder Thurgood Marshall, and iconic civil rights litigator, former LDF attorney, and the first Black woman to serve as a federal judge, Constance Baker Motley.
The 2022 Marshall-Motley Scholars and their respective hometowns are as follows:
Adom Abatkun, Atlanta, Georgia
Danyelle Honoré, Portsmouth, Virginia
Sophia Howard, Nashville, Tennessee
Arielle Hudson, Tunica, Mississippi
Nastassia Janvier, Miami, Florida
Carson Malbrough, Los Angeles, California
Malik Moore, Gallion, Alabama
Nathan Poland, Rockville, Maryland
Carlos Pollard Jr., LaPlace, Louisiana
Justyce Yuille, Little Rock, Arkansas
“We are proud to welcome 10 more driven, passionate future civil rights attorneys to the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program and to the Legal Defense Fund family. We were deeply impressed by their experience and connection to the mission of protecting and expanding the rights of Black communities across the South in the face of a new generation of assaults,” said LDF President and Director-Counsel Janai S. Nelson. “Through this program, we have been introduced to brilliant and committed students with powerful stories about their motivations to advance racial justice. We look forward to equipping them with all the requisite tools needed to maximize the impact they can have on Black communities and equity in our nation through the legal system — precisely what LDF was founded to help bring about.”
The 2022 cohort of Marshall-Motley Scholars brings significant professional experience with some of the most influential organizations and leaders in the nation. Members of the cohort have worked with Stacey Abrams’s Georgia gubernatorial campaign, former Senator Barbara Boxer, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, The Bronx Defenders and more. They have served as NAACP university chapter presidents and vice presidents, student government association chief justices and senators, founders of nonprofits and organizations that seek to improve the lives of incarcerated individuals and their families and have earned distinctions as Rhodes and Truman Scholars. Bios for the 10 scholars can be found below.
“Achieving racial justice in the South is, and always will be, at the heart of LDF’s mission. We could not be happier to continue to help ensure the future of legal activism in the region with another impressive cohort,” said Jino Ray, LDF’s Director of the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program. “The Scholars’ collective desire and drive to join the fight for racial equity for both present and future generations speaks volumes of their character, and we cannot wait to see what they achieve in their respective careers as civil rights attorneys.”
Over the next four years, LDF’s MMSP will continue to invest in the education and training of aspiring civil rights attorneys to advocate on behalf of Black communities in the South seeking racial justice and equity. Scholars will be afforded a full law school scholarships for tuition, room and board and incidentals to alleviate the debt burden that can prevent future lawyers from pursuing a career as a civil rights attorney; summer internships with national and regional civil rights organizations with offices in the South focused on racial justice to jumpstart training in civil rights law; a two-year postgraduate fellowship at civil rights law organizations in the South fighting to achieve racial justice; and access to special training sponsored by LDF.
Black students continue to face more barriers than ever to attend law school. Studies show that the cost of a private law school education has grown by a whopping 175% since 1985. According to the American Bar Association, student loans take a disproportionate toll on lawyers of color, often forcing them to take unwanted career paths. The support offered by the MMSP is an intentional effort to address the racial and economic barriers that often deter students from pursuing their dreams of becoming civil rights attorneys, and a targeted effort to support the civil rights ecosystem in the South.
Read the full press release and learn more about the 2023 MMSP cohort.