Martha J. Bergmark

Martha Jane Bergmark is an attorney, civil rights advocate, and writer from Mississippi. Bergmark is best known for her work promoting civil justice through civil legal aid organizations at the local, state, and national level. Currently, Bergmark serves as the executive director of Voices for Civil Justice.

Early life, education, and family Martha Jane Bergmark is the daughter of Robert Bergmark, a Methodist minister, and Carol (Comstock) Bergmark, a choir director. In 1953, her family moved to Jackson, Mississippi for her father to become a professor of philosophy at Millsaps College. Bergmark grew up in a traditional middle class community in Jackson where racial segregation between blacks and white residents was common and enforced through Jim Crow era laws. Bergmark excelled academically in high school and was named a U.S. Presidential Schola r in 1966 for the State of Mississippi.

Bergmark earned a degree from Oberlin College. She obtained a Juris Doctor degree from University of Michigan Law School in 1973. Her son, David Andalman, wrote and co-directed American Milkshake, which was selected for the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. The low budget independent comedy about race, class and basketball in 1990s was produced out of Bergmark's family house on Montgomery Avenue in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Career Early years in Mississippi In 1973, after Bergmark graduated from law school, she returned to Michigan to established a civil rights and poverty law practice. In 1978, when federal funds were enlarged by United States President Jimmy Carter's administration, she left the law practice to found the Southeast Mississippi Legal Services in a nine county area. Bergmark was the founding executive director of Voices for Civil Justice before her retirement in August 2021.

Honors Bergmark is a former Reginald Heber Smith Fellow and the 1990 recipient of the Kutak-Dodds Prize for her civil rights and legal aid work. Bergmark is a 2018 Presidential Scholars Roosevelt “Rosey” Thompson awardee.