Elaine R. Jones, only the fourth director in the LDF's 56-year history, will address more than 300 invited guests at the annual breakfast in La Sala de Puerto Rico in the Stratton Student Center. Admission to the breakfast, hosted by President Charles M. Vest, will be by invitation only. Dr. Vest and Provost Joel Moses will also speak. In addition, leadership awards will be presented to a faculty member, an alumnus or alumna, and a student or students to honor work that exemplifies the legacy of Dr. King.
Admission is free and the public is invited.
Ms. Jones joined the LDF after she graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1970, declining an offer to join a prestigious New York firm. I went to law school to use the law to serve people. She has headed the LDF since 1993. The LDF, under the direction of its first director-counsel Thurgood Marshall, litigated Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., the 1954 case in which the US Supreme Court ruled that legally segregated public schools are unconstitutional. The tradition of using the legal system to fight economic and racial injustice continues under Ms. Jones' leadership.