John Payton
John Payton, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, delivered the J. Alston Atkins Constitutional Law Lecture on October 15. The event was presented by the university and the Winston-Salem State University Foundation and sponsored by the law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton.
Payton, who has defended some of the most important civil rights cases in the U.S. in recent years, prefaced his remarks saying, “I’m not going to be shy about some of the things I am about to say. This not the time to be shy.” He wasn’t.
The United States has become even more separated by race, Payton said, and in the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s election, watershed moment that it was, our country is still far from becoming a post-racial society. The barometers to measure that issue education, employment, health care, criminal justice all indicate wide disparities for minorities, he said. The only barometer that shows any sign of significant improvement is in the area of effective political participation, Payton noted. To hear more of his thoughts on these subjects and more, click here.
Payton explains his point.
Payton was the lead counsel for the University of Michigan in successfully defending the use of race in the admission process, including the undergraduate school argument before the United States Supreme Court. He has taught at the Georgetown Law Center, Howard University Law School and Harvard Law School, where he had earned his law degree in 1977.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) was founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall. Although LDF’s primary purpose was to provide legal assistance to poor African-Americans, its work over the years has brought greater justice to all Americans.
