Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C – The NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the U.S., will renew its litigation efforts on voter access, gerrymandering and the First Amendment, among other civil rights and social justice issues, the group’s top officials say.
Efforts to undermine diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — in the private and public sectors — require aggressive legal advocacy on behalf of Black people and other minorities, said Kristen Clarke, the organization’s new general counsel.
“Our communities are under relentless attack — from the ballot box to their wallets — and this moment demands that we use the full weight of the law to promote justice and accountability,” said Clarke, who previously led the Department of Justice’s civil rights division under former President Joe Biden.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said Clarke is “the legal mind this moment demands.”
“As we face unprecedented attacks on voting and civil rights, having Kristen Clarke at the helm of our legal operations brings strategic vision, disciplined leadership, and innovative advocacy,” he said in a statement.
The NAACP said Clarke’s appointment shows how it’s mobilizing “legal firepower” to combat Republican efforts to dismantle voting rights protections that date back to the civil rights movement, when Black Americans overcame legal suppression and intimidation, largely in southern states.
The NAACP sued nearly a year ago, arguing that President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to require proof of citizenship for voter registration violated the constitutional rights of states to regulate voting, and discriminated against voters of color. A federal judge blocked that order in June, siding with a group of Democratic state attorneys general that also challenged its constitutionality.
Clarke, who will oversee the NAACP’s legal strategy and operations, was the first woman appointed to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Serving from 2021 through early 2025, she sought reforms in police departments over abusive practices, including in Memphis after the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols. She also was part of the Department of Justice team that prosecuted an avowed white supremacist for hate crimes after a shooting killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, New York supermarket in 2022.
Before joining the Justice Department, Clarke earned degrees at Harvard University and Columbia Law School. She also served as president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which was founded more than 60 years ago to challenge racial segregation.
Since leaving federal service, she has served as a professor at Howard University School of Law, which she will continue to do while working for the NAACP, she said.
