Devon Chenelle ‘23
Staff Editor
Last Friday, January 29, Elaine Jones ’70 delivered the keynote address at the symposium titled “From the Equal Rights Amendment to Black Lives Matter: Reflecting on Intersectional Struggles for Equality.” The symposium was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law and the Virginia Law Review and was very well attended. Arjun Ogale ’21, EIC for VLR, was pleased with the turn out and remarked, “It shows that the law school community has plenty of interest in learning about the history and development of intersectional legal movements. This is something that law journals and legal academia ought to be highlighting.”
This writer also caught up with Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui, one of the main organizers, about the meaning behind the symposium topic. Professor Forde-Mazrui replied that for him “intersectional struggles for equality” meant two things: “First, that it is important to understand that stigma and discrimination works so as to disadvantage and advantage people unfairly, not just when they are of a particular race or sex or other group, but when their identity combines multiple groups. Second, that groups need to work together to achieve change.”
Pictured: Elaine Jones '70 spoke both of her challenges and how to look towards the future at the symposium. Photo Courtesy of law.virginia.edu
Just before Jones took the virtual center stage, Dean Risa Goluboff presented the Gregory H. Swanson Award to Nirajé Medley-Bacon ’22 for her tireless dedication to justice within the community.
Jones, the Law School’s first female African-American graduate, was introduced by Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui, who described Jones’ numerous accomplishments and achievements, including how Jones worked for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund (LDF) for thirty-four years and became the fourth director-counsel of LDF in 1993—the first woman to hold the position. In 1999, Jones was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law, UVA’s highest legal award. Professor Forde-Mazrui described Jones as a “beam of light entering the room” when he met her in 1999, and said that he has felt like “Elaine Jones’s student” as he has worked with her over the last several weeks.
Jones’ keynote address was titled “Navigating Law and Politics in Pursuit of Racial Equality—Lessons from the Front Line.” Jones began her talk by discussing her role in Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court case that led to the abolition of the death penalty in thirty-seven states. During her work on the case, she had to travel to Georgia to deal with a recalcitrant government clerk who was refusing to certify the case record, and, after explaining to the clerk, southerner-to-southerner, that “without her I would lose my job,” successfully got her to provide the necessary signature.
After her graduation from Howard University, Jones worked in the Peace Corps for two years in Turkey. That experience would serve her well during her time at UVA Law, Jones noted that “after having gone through Turkey, Charlottesville was really not that different.” Jones experienced distinct kinds of discrimination in Turkey, as “the Turks told me to my face that there was no such thing as a Black American,” while “the white volunteers didn’t like me.” Eventually, she grew to form valuable friendships with her Turkish students and their parents. Through this experience, Jones said, “I taught myself to believe I could be successful and that I could navigate the law school terrain.”
Upon her arrival in Charlottesville, Jones faced a new set of challenges.
“At UVA,” she said, “I was keenly aware that as the first [female, African-American student] I had the responsibility to open things up for others like me . . . I knew I had to succeed at Virginia.”
“I knew I could not develop a complex of any kind,” she continued, “I had to nurture and develop a positive attitude . . . I also could not internalize negativity . . . and whenever there was anything adverse that occurred, I reminded myself I had supporters at the Law School.” She was aware, she said, that “many other women of color were depending on me, and I could not let them down.”
Jones fondly remembered Hardy Dillard, who was the dean at UVA Law when she was admitted, and also her contracts professor. She did, however, have some negative experiences, including a time when one of her white female classmates mistook her for a member of the cleaning crew. “I said nothing,” recounted Jones, “and went on about my mission, for I had no space for her inside my head.”
“While I was at the Law School, I had a mission to accomplish,” Jones remarked, and she felt it was important to not “clutter your mind up with things that are extraneous to who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish.”
Jones set such a strong example that UVA Law became a family tradition, as she stated “the university went back to my family when it admitted its second African-American woman, and that woman was my sister.”
Drawing from her extremely successful career in impact litigation, Jones emphasized the importance of collaborative work in achieving desired outcomes, and declared that, “I have learned in my thirty-five years of practice that coalitions are essential to making progress.” She also noted that “in social justice and civil rights litigation, it matters not only what the issues are, but it also matters who the plaintiffs are . . . I don’t think it should matter, but it does,” because “it is important that it is not somebody that . . . brings to the mind of the Court issues that are not relevant to the case.”
Jones also reflected on the importance of voting rights for all Americans, as she referred to the franchise as “the corn of the realm.” She noted her own experience assisting in the passage of the Motor Voter Act, which offered a simplified voter registration process for anyone signing up for a driver’s license.
Jones concluded her talk with reflections on the meanings of tolerance and respect, and the long-term goals of social justice. “Tolerance,” she said, “means you do not have to like my skin color, my age, my size, my gender identity, or anything else about me, but you do have to respect my right to be different.” And she continued, “‘Respect’ is the right word I think, rather than tolerance,” because “tolerance infers something is lesser than,” and “it tends to elevate me above you, because I can look down and tolerate you.” Yes, “Respect is the word.”
“I submit,” said Jones, “that the goal should be to live in an environment with mutual respect for our differences.” In her long career of civil rights advocacy, Jones had done much to help create just such an environment.
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dnc9hu@virginia.edu