ABA Tribute Video to Eva Paterson, Recipient of the 2024 ABA Thurgood Marshall Award

Описание: The American Bar Association Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice honored racial justice and civil rights activist Eva Jefferson Paterson, co-founder and former president of the Equal Justice Society, with its Thurgood Marshall Award on August 3, 2024, at a dinner celebration in Chicago. https://equaljusticesociety.org/evapa...

The award honors U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who epitomized individual commitment, in word and action, to the cause of civil rights in this country, and recognizes similar long-term contributions by other members of the legal profession to the advancement of civil rights, social justice, and human rights in the United States.

Paterson, who co-founded the Equal Justice Society and served as its president from 2000-22, has worked to transform the nation’s consciousness on race through efforts in law, social science, and the arts. She has presented before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judicial Conference on white supremacy, implicit bias, and affirmative action.

The author of numerous articles, including “Can’t We Get Along?” and “The Future of Affirmative Action” (California Lawyer), Paterson got her start in civil rights early. As a teen, she traveled around Illinois delivering Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Paterson was the first African American student government president at Northwestern University, where she led nonviolent protests following the 1970 shooting of student demonstrators at Kent State University and debated then-Vice President Spiro Agnew on live television.

Paterson is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Following her graduation, she worked for the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County and co-founded A Safe Place, a shelter for battered women in Oakland, California.