Spotlight On

Mission:
The mission of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs is to provide pro bono legal services and assistance to address discrimination and entrenched poverty in the Washington, DC area. The Committee, which accomplishes this mission with the volunteer assistance of local lawyers and law firms, has set a national standard for civil rights advocacy, providing annually more than 50,000 hours of quality legal representation to its clients, and handling more than 5,000 cases for individuals and groups.

Background:
The Washington Lawyers' Committee and its counterparts in other cities were formed after the publication of the report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. The report identified discrimination and poverty as the root causes of the riots that erupted in cities around the nation during the late 1960's and in Washington, DC in April 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The hallmark of the Committee has always been its ability to mobilize the resources of the private bar to address injustice and inequality.

Four of the Committee's projects—Equal Employment Opportunity, Fair Housing, Public Accommodations, Disability Rights—were created to seek legal redress under the nation's major civil rights laws. These projects, aided by the resources provided by Washington's legal community, have become nationally known for landmark court victories, record judgments, and consent decrees requiring precedent-setting remedies. The projects' legal work has included innovations in employment and housing testing for civil rights violations.

The Committee's other major projects—Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Public Education—also come from a long tradition of volunteer lawyers and firms generously responding to pressing community needs. The Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project has championed the rights of newcomers for over 25 years, and has made it possible for tens of thousands of asylum seekers and other refugees to obtain the legal assistance they need. The Public Education Project has supported parent groups and parent involvement in the public schools for over 20 years, and has sought to improve the quality of public education in the District of Columbia through advocacy for school reform in the areas of school governance, facilities, and funding. Project staff has also developed and nurtured 45 partnerships between area firms and DC Public Schools by bringing hundreds of volunteers from the firms into the schools to mentor, tutor, and assist thousands of at-risk K-12 students through educational and life skills enrichment programs.

Current Programs:

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Project, which provides legal representation in hundreds of employment discrimination cases for individuals and in class actions, has assisted claimants who suffered racial harassment, sexual harassment, denial of promotions, and retaliation on the job. It has opened employment opportunities for thousands of African-Americans, women, and other groups affected by discrimination on the job. The Committee's EEO Intake Program alone responds to nearly 1,000 requests for assistance annually.

• The Fair Housing Project, which seeks to assure equal housing opportunity, has provided counsel in hundreds of cases, producing broad injunctive relief and millions of dollars in compensation for individuals and families facing discrimination in the rental or purchase of housing. Currently, the project seeks to change the discriminatory practices and policies of an insurance company that restricts, limits or denies homeowners insurance in predominantly African American, Latino, and integrated neighborhoods throughout the United States.

• The Public Accommodations Project, which has won precedent-setting victories for minority group members denied equal access to and service in restaurants, motels, health clubs and other places of public accommodation throughout the country, has secured major settlements of class actions challenging public accommodation discrimination. Recently, the project won victories in race discrimination cases against taxicab drivers and companies in Washington, DC that refused service to African Americans, an area that remains a focus of the Project's efforts.

• The Public Education Project continues to seek improvement in the quality of public education in the District of Columbia through advocacy for school reform and through educational partnerships between area firms and local schools. The project seeks to increase the number of partnerships in order to benefit a greater number of at-risk K-12 students in need.

• For more than 20 years, the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project has served as a critical legal resource for immigrants and refugees facing denial of civil rights. The project works on immigration cases and law reform issues, and provides training on political asylum law for hundreds of volunteer attorneys who in turn assist thousands of newcomers seeking refuge in the United States. The project has also worked with community-based agencies to develop a group processing model for citizenship applicants.

• The Disability Rights Project represents the Disability Rights Council of Greater Washington, which provides support and advocacy for individuals with disabilities by seeking to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Over the past 14 years, the project has secured access for hundreds of clients to movie theaters, banks, hospitals, and numerous retail chains, as well as greater access to polling places, voting machines and to D.C.'s 911 emergency calling system for deaf persons.

Funding Needs:
The Committee seeks contributions to support the work of its projects and to maintain the highest level of pro bono legal services for individuals and groups suffering from discrimination and poverty in the Washington, DC area. Funding is especially needed for the Committee's Public Education Project.

The "Spotlight On" highlights the activities of a different 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving the Metropolitan Washington, DC community. The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight On" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the region's nonprofit sector.

If you'd like to see your NPO in the "Spotlight," e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to dclibrary@foundationcenter.org, with "Spotlight Submission" in the subject line.