Events

Election Protection Recent court decisions and state legislative efforts have put into place requirements that voters show a photo ID in order to vote. The NBA holds that such requirements are unconstitutional, so the NBA will support legislative efforts to outlaw photo ID requirements for voting, and will mobilize election protection efforts in AR, CA, FL, GA, LA, MD, MI, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, TX, PA and VA to ensure that every individual may freely exercise the RIGHT to vote.

NY MI

PA OH

CA

VA

MO

Judicial Equality: Dismantling The Barriers That Prohibit A Diverse Bench In additional to evaluating, endorsing and/or testifying for or against a judicial nominees, the NBA will advocate for the discontinuation of the use of the “blue slip process” by certain U.S. Senators to block two qualified African American female federal judicial nominees: 1) Jennifer May-Parker from North Carolina; and 2) Judge Allison Renee Lee from South Carolina

National Bar Association A Legacy of Service. A Promise of Justice.

NJ MD

NC MS

TX

Publication of a Special Addition of St. John’s University School of Law Review St. John’s University School of Law Review has agreed to publish a special of its law review journal for the NBA Voting Rights. A request for papers will be sent to the membership.

GA

LA FL

For more information about Election Protection, contact Election Protection Chair Vicky McPherson at [email protected] or Co-chair Leigh Chapman [email protected] Voter Rights Webinars sponsored by NBA Legislative Division: · “Election Protection and the Midterm Elections” · “Tools of Disenfranchisement: Voter ID, Felon Disenfranchisement” · “Celebrating the Voter Rights Act” Presidential Annual Showcase  “Voter Protection: Restoring the Voting Rights Act and Advancing Democracy” 90th Anniversary Convention | Los Angeles, CA NBA Day On The Hill

Events

Seeing Red Campaign: The Blue Slip That Has the NBA Seeing Red NBA Region IV consists of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia. In conjunction with the affiliates in these states and the Region IV Director, the NBA will organize a campaign to get North Carolina Senator Richard Burr and South Carolina Senators Lindsey Graham and Timothy Scott to fill out blue slips for judicial nominees Jennifer May-Parker (NC) and Allison Renee Lee (SC), respectively. Simultaneously, it will lobby Patrick Senator Leahy to set aside the blue slip process. For more information contact Legislative Standing Committee Chair Kimberly Jones at [email protected]

NATIONAL TARGETED MEMBER BENEFITS INITIATIVES In an effort to attract new members and/or reclaim old ones and supplement the benefits offered by various NBA subparts, the Corporate Advisory Board has been re-activated and the following national initiatives have been created: 1) Small Firm/Solo Practitioner; 2) Young Lawyers/Pipeline; and 3) Health Awareness. Corporate Advisory Board Chairs Randy Hayman Kimberly Phillips 

Washington, DC | April 21 - 25, 2015 NBA Legislative Standing Committee Lobbying Efforts The Voting Rights Amendment Act, section 5(a) The Democracy Restoration Act

2014 - 2015 Year at a

Small Firm/Solo Practitioner Coordinator Michelle Thomas Young Lawyers/Pipeline Coordinator Tiffany Beaman Health Advisor Dr. Angela Brown

Pamela J. Meanes, NBA President

[email protected] For more information about the 2014-2015 bar year visit www.nationalbar.org

A Legacy of Service. A Promise of Justice. Pamela J. Meanes, President Our nation and the African American community are at a crucial point. While as a country we have made significant progress in the area of civil rights – especially in the past 60 years – and though we are halfway through the second term of our first African American president, challenges remain. Affirmative action is under attack, and we’ve seen a growing movement to require voters to present photo IDs in order to vote, and the nominations of African American judges are frequently frozen. During the 2014-2015 bar year, the NBA will focus on four crucial areas:1) Education: The New Civil Right, 2.) Voter Protection: Restoring the Voting Rights Acts and Advancing Democracy; 3) Judicial Equality: Dismantling The Barriers That Prohibit A Diverse Bench; and 4) Police Misconduct. With 2014 being the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 60th Anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, and 2015 being the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it is especially appropriate for the NBA to turn its attention to and focus its resources on these areas. The achievement gap in education is America’s most vexing social problem—the modern frontier of the civil rights movement. The NBA will educate, examine and implement programing which will seek to combat the segregation and discrimination which has slowly resurfaced over the years in a new form: segregation based on both race and income. There is no right more basic and fundamental than the right to vote. Recent court decisions and legislation have made it harder to exercise this right. Accordingly, the NBA will educate, mobilize and advocate against such efforts and lobby for laws which makes it easy for everyone to vote. Finally, with the goal of creating true equity in our legal system, the NBA will seek to increase diversity on the bench by ending any filibuster tactic which is used to stall judicial nominations. In a disproportionately high number of cases, minority candidates for positions on state and federal benches are frozen out, their nominations filibustered in state and federal legislative bodies. Recognizing that this is a crucial time in America’s history the NBA will keep these issues in front of our community.

Education: The New Civil Rights

When we fail to educate all children, the outcome is predictable: third graders with poor skills become middle schoolers with third grade skills, and eventually high school students without the ability to succeed in college or to compete in today’s economy. The consequences of this failure are disastrous across the board: increased poverty, crime and incarceration, and decreased productivity and quality of life. The achievement gap in education is America’s most vexing social problem—the modern frontier of the civil rights movement.

National Advisors NBA Past President Junius Williams Professor Kimberly Norwood, Washington University School of Law Attorney Allison Brown, Founder Allison Brown Consulting (ABC)

Events

Publication of a Special Edition of University of Arkansas Law Review

University of Arkansas has agreed to publish a special NBA 25th Wiley Branton Symposium edition of its law review journal. Symposium panelists will be given the opportunity submit articles Presidential Mid Year Showcase  Charles Hamilton Houston’s Unfinished Business: Rebuilding After Ferguson NBA Mid-Year & Gertrude Rush Conference March 26-29, 2015 | St. Louis,  Missouri

Pro Bono Efforts

NBA Constitutional Law Day  September 17, 2014 | National Partner: Missouri Bar NBA Co-Sponsored Panels During Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Conference September 24-27, 2014 | Washington, D.C. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II’s Brian Trust During CBC From Separate But Equal to Separate But Unequal School Choice Debate Thursday, September 25, 2014 | 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

25th Anniversary Wiley Branton Symposiums For more information contact Wiley Branton Chairperson Professor Tracy Porter at nbawileyabranton2014.com or Co-Chair Dean Everett Bellamy at [email protected] East Coast  St. John’s University School of Law New York, New York | October 10, 2014 West Coast Western State College of Law  Fullerton, California | October 17, 2014 Southern  Southern University School of Law Center Baton Rouge, Louisiana | October 30-31 MIDWEST University of Arkansas School of Law Fayetteville, Arkansas | November 7, 2014

NBA “Advocates for Education Reform” – Protecting the Right to Education One Student at a Time. As part of the effort to establish education as the new Civil Right, during the next year the NBA will take steps to provide representation to African American school age children who are facing school or school district disciplinary hearings. This is a key initiative, one that is intended to shut down the “school to prison” pipeline that results in a disproportionate number of young African Americans being lost forever to our nation’s prison system. Drop That Zero Campaign  The NBA shall advocate for the end to zero tolerance policies, decreased presence of armed guards in schools, and demand new policies for dealing with student misconduct. Education Equity Recruit majority law firms to support equity reform litigation in the states. For more information contact NBA Pro Bono and Public Service Standing Committee Chair Aramis Donell Ayala at [email protected]

Voter Protection: Restoring the Voting Rights Act and Advancing Democracy Elections should be free, fair and accessible. When the right to vote is not protected, discriminatory laws are implemented, people are disenfranchised and are unable to elect representatives of their choice.

National Voter Protection Advisor Professor Kareem Crayton, University of North Carolina School of Law