Elaine R. Jones is the retired president and director-counsel emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDF) and Howard University alumna (BA ’65), has been named the recipient of the American Bar Association 2011 Thurgood Marshall Award. In 1993, Jones became the first woman and only the fourth person to head LDF, the nation’s oldest law firm fighting for equal rights and justice for people of color, women and the poor. She holds 14 honorary doctorate degrees and the Jefferson Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded by the University of Virginia, which does not award honorary degrees.
Jones was the first African-American to serve on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association, a former Council member of the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities and a recipient of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Award.
