LatinoJustice PRLDEF
 |
|
| Founded | 1972 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Jorge Batista, Victor Marrero, Cesar A. Perales |
| Focus | Using law, advocacy and education to protect opportunities for all Latinos to succeed |
| Location | |
| Origins | Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund |
|
Key people
|
Juan Cartagena, President & General Counsel |
| Slogan | LatinoJustice PRLDEF champions an equitable society |
| Website | http://www.latinojustice.org/ |
LatinoJustice PRLDEF, long known by its former name the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, is a New York-based national civil rights organization with the goal of changing discriminatory practices via advocacy and litigation. Privately funded, nonprofit and nonpartisan, it is part of the umbrella Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund was founded in 1972 by three lawyers, one of whom, Cesar A. Perales, became the president of the group for much of its history. PRLDEF played a key role in the installation of bilingual education in New York City schools, and soon became the most important legal advocacy group for Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland. The group became known for the part it played in redistricting battles, for its opposition to civil service exams it thought discriminatory, and for its attempts to combat anti-Latino sentiment especially as arising from the debate over immigration to the U.S. It changed its name to the current one in 2008 in order to reflect demographic shifts in the Latino population in New York and elsewhere.
The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund was founded in 1972 as a non-profit organization by three lawyers, Jorge Batista, Victor Marrero, and Cesar A. Perales, with Perales the fund's first president. It was created as a privately funded, nonprofit and nonpartisan organization with the goal of changing discriminatory practices via advocacy and litigation. It was inspired in form and purpose by the high-profile NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which Thurgood Marshall had established in 1957. PRLDEF (pronounced "pearl-deaf") had $300,000 of initial funding from foundations, government sources, and private corporations.U.S. House of Representatives member Herman Badillo was on its first Board of Directors, and at the fund's initial press conference he said, "There is plenty of room for change in our society, and much can be done through the medium of class actions." The organization soon grew to have a Litigation Division, a Pro Bono Cooperating Counsel Division, and an Education Division. A typical staffer was a young, idealistic attorney from a premier law school.
...
Wikipedia