September 10, 1998 Contacts: Donna Plasket (804) 924-3946 Anne Bromley (804) 924-6861 PROMINENT CIVIL RIGHTS LAWYER ELAINE R. JONES, 1998 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA, TO LECTURE SEPT. 24 Elaine R. Jones, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), will give a public lecture Sept. 24 at 3 p.m. at the University of Virginia Chapel. Julian Bond, national chair of the NAACP and a lecturer in civil rights history at U.Va., will introduce her. Jones, the first African-American woman to graduate from U.Va.Õs School of Law, will be on Grounds to receive the WomenÕs Center 1998 Distinguished Alumna Award, which is to be formally bestowed upon her later that evening at a gala benefit dinner at CarrÕs Hill, hosted by University President John T. Casteen III. Tickets to the dinner are $75 apiece, and may be obtained by calling the WomenÕs Center at 982-2361. JonesÕ public talk will focus on public service law, which has been her career since she turned down a potentially lucrative job offer from a private law firm upon her graduation in 1970 and went to work for the LDF. ÒWhen Thomas Jefferson founded the University, he certainly understood the importance of public service, educating the brightest and most talented young men. I am pleased that U.Va. has inspired me and other dynamic women to follow in that tradition as well,Ó said Jones, the first woman to head the LDF, the nationÕs premier civil rights public-interest law organization. ÒPublic service means consistently reaching out to use oneÕs training and skills to promote and advance the interest of a humane and caring society. I am humbled by the award and challenged to live up to the very high standard set by the men and women who have come before me. This award inspires me to continue in the tradition rooted deeply in the values of the University of Virginia.Ó MORE 2 A Norfolk native, Jones earned a B.A. in political science from Howard University, then served in the Peace Corps for two years 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 School of LawÕs 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. ÒWhen I entered U.Va. in 1967, women could not enroll in the undergraduate school and there were only a few women in the professional schools,Ó Jones noted recently. ÒThe concept of a women's center was unknown. Today, the Women's Center and its activities are an integral part of the University. As I have grown over the years working in the public sector, my university has also grown.Ó 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 declined the private firmÕs offer 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 on behalf of black death-penalty defendants throughout the 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 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. MORE 3 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 1989, 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 Ô72), deputy chief, Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit of New York City. ¥ 1992: Vivian Pinn (M.D., Medicine Ô67), director, National Institutes of Health Office of Research on WomenÕs Health. ¥ 1993: Katherine Couric (B.A., English Ô79), news anchor, NBC Today Show. ¥ 1994: Kathryn Thornton (Ph.D., Physics Ô79), NASA astronaut. ¥ 1995: Hanan Ashrawi (Ph.D., English Ô82), human and civil rights activist in the Middle East. ¥ 1996: Mariann Stratton (M.S.N., Nursing Ô81), Rear Admiral (ret.), Nurse Corps, U.S. Navy. ¥ 1997: Valerie Ackerman (B.A., Political and Social Thought Ô81), president, WomenÕs National Basketball Association. # # # Reporters: Elaine Jones will be available for questions after her 3 p.m. public lecture at the U.Va. Chapel. A mult-box will be available for radio and television reporters. Television reporters should contact our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.