Elaine Jones

Elaine R. Jones (born March 2, 1944) is an American civil rights attorney and activist. She joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) in 1970 and in 1993 became the organization's first female director-counsel and president.

Early life and education Born on March 2, 1944, in Norfolk, Virginia, Elaine Jones came of age in the Jim Crow South and learned its painful lessons early on. Her mother was a college-educated schoolteacher and her father was a Pullman porter and a member of the nation's first black trade union. Her parents taught her about the realities of racism, but also about the importance of idealism.

After graduating with honors in political science from Howard University in 1965,

Civil rights career After graduating from law school in 1970, Jones joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the nation’s oldest law firm fighting for equal rights and justice for people of color, women and the poor. She was one of the first African-American women to defend death row inmates. Her trials were regularly picketed by the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1975, Jones was named special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, William T. Coleman, Jr. During her tenure she helped write policy that opened the United States Coast Guard to women.

President of the LDF In 1993, Jones became the first woman to be appointed president and director-counsel of the LDF. As President and Director-Counsel, Elaine Jones expanded LDF's litigation into new areas such as health care and environmental justice, while keeping the organization focused on its core work in education, voting rights, economic access and criminal justice.

Under her leadership, the LDF successfully defended affirmative action in Gratz v. Bollinger and directed a successful clemency campaign on behalf of an incarcerated young woman, Kemba Smith, to underscore over-incarceration and draconian federal mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines.

Awards Foremother Award from National Center for Health Research, 2016

Personal life Jones is a member of The Links.