June 5, 1998 Contacts: Donna Lewis-Wagner (804) 974-9100 Anne Bromley (804) 924-6861 U.VA. TO BESTOW 1998 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA AWARD UPON PROMINENT CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER ELAINE R. JONES Elaine R. Jones, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Virginia School of Law, will receive the U.Va. WomenÕs CenterÕs 1998 Distinguished Alumna Award this fall. Jones, the first woman to head the LDF, the nationÕs premier civil rights public-interest law organization, will be honored Sept. 24 at a gala benefit dinner at CarrÕs Hill, the home of University President John T. Casteen III. A Norfolk native, Jones earned a B.A. in political science from Howard University, then spent two years in the Peace Corps before applying to the University of Virginia School of Law in 1967. She did not expect to be admitted; state policy in the 1960s was to pay qualified black applicants to study at out-of-state colleges and universities. Jones, though, was admitted to U.Va. -- one of only seven women and two African Americans in the class of 1970. She jumped at the challenge. ÒThey took a chance on me, so I took a chance on them,Ó she said in a 1994 interview. ÒSheÕs a terrific person, a very vivacious, outgoing sort of person,Ó said Walter J. Wadlington, the James Madison Professor of Law, who knew her well as a student and is a longtime friend. ÒShe is the kind of person who, just by her personality, you thought she would be a leader.Ó After her graduation, Jones turned down a well-paying job offer from a private firm and went to work for the Legal Defense Fund for approximately half the salary. She has remained there since, with the exception of two years spent as a special assistant to the Secretary of Transportation in the Ford Administration. Her first assignments with the LDF often involved litigating death penalty cases in the Deep South; in 1972 -- just two years out of law school -- she was counsel of record in Furman v. Georgia, the landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down death penalty statutes in 37 states. In her stint in the Ford Administration, from 1975 to 1977, Jones took the lead in opening Coast Guard service to women. After returning to the LDF -- a separate organization from the MORE 2 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) -- she became its first official legislative advocate. In 1993, she rose to become the LDFÕs fourth director-counsel, following in the footsteps of founder Thurgood Marshall, who argued Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas before the Supreme Court; Jack Greenberg, who argued some 40 cases before the Supreme Court and defended sit-in demonstrators, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; and Julius L. Chambers, who helped ensure enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and defended it and the Civil Rights Act of 1966 before the Supreme Court. ÒShe has been an extraordinary catalyst for change,Ó said Sharon Davie, director of the U.Va. WomenÕs Center. ÒAs a civil rights activist, a leader on policy issues, a fighter and a healer, sheÕs been an enormous contributor to the nation as a whole.Ó Now heading what she calls Òthe oldest civil rights law firm in the countryÓ with a staff of more than 25 attorneys and offices in Washington, Los Angeles and New York, Jones has continued the organizationÕs strength in litigation while putting a priority on shaping public policy through legislation -- specifically targeting street violence, hate crimes, equal educational opportunities, access to health care and environmental discrimination. She has received several other honors, including the Gertrude E. Rush Award of the National Bar Association and the George W. Collins Award of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. In 1982, she became the first African American to be elected to the American Bar AssociationÕs Board of Governors. Jones will be the eighth recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award, established in 1991 to honor a female U.Va. graduate who has demonstrated excellence, leadership and extraordinary commitment to her field, and who has used her talents as a positive force for change. The previous winners: ¥ 1991: Linda Fairstein (J.D., Law '72), deputy chief, Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit of New York City. ¥ 1992: Vivian Pinn (M.D., Medicine '67), director, National Institutes of Health Office of Research on WomenÕs Health. ¥ 1993: Katherine Couric (B.A., English '79), news anchor, NBC Today Show. ¥ 1994: Kathyrn Thornton (Ph.D., Physics '79), NASA astronaut. ¥ 1995: Hanan Ashrawi (Ph.D., English '82), human and civil rights activist in the Middle East. ¥ 1996: Mariann Stratton (M.S.N., Nursing '81), Rear Admiral (ret.), Nurse Corps, U.S. Navy. ¥ 1997: Valerie Ackerman (B.A., Political and Social Thought '81), president, WomenÕs National Basketball Association. # # # Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.