By DonYeta Villavaso-Madden, Equity and Anti-Racist Strategist
In eighth grade, Malcolm Little was among the strongest students in his class at Mason, Michigan. When his teacher asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Malcolm answered confidently: a lawyer. The teacher later pulled him aside and told him to be “realistic.” Because he was Black, becoming a lawyer was not a reasonable goal. He suggested Malcolm consider carpentry instead.
Malcolm would later recount this moment in The Autobiography of Malcolm X as one of his earliest lessons about how racism can shape expectations, long before talent has a chance to grow. The world would come to know Malcolm Little as Malcolm X — and later, after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, as El‑Hajj Malik El‑Shabazz — a leader who refused to accept the limits others tried to place on his life.
Most of us can point to a moment when someone questioned our belonging or potential. For Black professionals and many Leaders of Color, these moments are rarely isolated. They are part of a pattern of messaging — sometimes subtle, sometimes explicit — about who is seen as credible, capable, or worthy of leadership.
Courage in the legal profession is not only demonstrated in courtrooms, policy victories, or legal strategy. It is also found in persistence—continuing to stand for justice while navigating inequity in professional spaces. Many Black leaders, particularly Black attorneys, carry this dual responsibility: advancing justice externally while confronting anti‑Blackness internally.
Black Lawyers Who Changed the Law — and the Country
Black history is American history. It cannot be contained within a single month, given that the contributions of Black people have shaped this nation. Black History Month offers an opportunity to elevate stories of Black brilliance, leadership, and achievement that are too often absent from traditional education.
Given Columbia Legal Services’ mission, it is fitting to recognize Black attorneys whose advocacy has transformed the law and expanded justice in America. Legal change is built through courage, strategy, and persistence.
Charles Hamilton Houston developed the legal strategy that dismantled segregation, laying the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall argued the case before the Supreme Court and later became the first Black Supreme Court Justice. Constance Baker Motley litigated desegregation cases across the South and later became the first Black woman federal judge. Pauli Murray’s legal scholarship shaped both racial and gender equality law. Robert L. Carter co‑argued Brown v. Board of Education and later served as a federal judge. Charlotte E. Ray became the first Black woman lawyer in the United States, and Jane Bolin became the first Black woman judge, working to eliminate racial discrimination in the juvenile justice system.
These attorneys practiced law while facing exclusion, violence, and discrimination. Their advocacy was deeply personal and grounded in lived experience.
Currently, Black attorneys make up roughly 5% of lawyers in the United States, despite Black Americans representing about 14% of the population. Black women remain among the most underrepresented groups in the legal profession. These disparities affect access to justice, trust in legal institutions, and the profession’s future.
As Audre Lorde reminds us, “Without community, there is no liberation.”
Civil Rights History in Washington State
The Pacific Northwest is often associated with scenic landscapes and a laid‑back culture. But beauty should not be mistaken for equity. In this region, racial exclusion has often been quieter and embedded in systems rather than expressed openly.
Washington State experienced restrictive housing covenants, redlining, employment discrimination, and exclusion from unions and skilled trades. Black legal advocacy and community organizing were essential in confronting these systems. Seattle’s NAACP chapter, founded in 1913, helped lead legal challenges to discrimination in housing and employment, and the Seattle Open Housing Ordinance of 1968 followed years of advocacy from Black community leaders.
Despite Washington’s progressive reputation, disparities in wealth, employment, housing, and leadership representation persist for Black, Indigenous, Latino, and immigrant communities. These inequities extend into the legal system itself, where Communities of Color — particularly Black communities — continue to face disproportionate contact with the criminal legal system and barriers to legal representation.
Even outside formal systems, many Black professionals still navigate everyday experiences of racial profiling — being followed in stores, questioned about belonging in professional spaces, or perceived as a threat regardless of role or credentials. Access to justice has never been automatic. It has always required advocacy.
Legal Aid, Columbia Legal Services, and Community Advocacy
Legal aid work is relational, existing at the intersection of law, poverty, race, power, and community survival.
Columbia Legal Services has long been part of Washington’s civil rights and legal advocacy ecosystem — working alongside communities to challenge systemic injustice through litigation, policy advocacy, and movement partnership.
CLS’s work includes advocacy supporting undocumented farmworkers and immigrant communities, efforts to end mass incarceration and promote humane treatment for incarcerated people, and systemic advocacy addressing economic justice and access to opportunity.
This work reflects the long tradition of civil rights lawyering rooted in community experience and collective action.
Legal advocacy is not carried by attorneys alone. Paralegals, legal assistants, community advocates, and other legal aid professionals play essential roles in advancing justice. These professionals are often closer to client communities and frequently reflect the diversity of the people served. At the same time, power dynamics within the legal profession — including differences in credentialing, compensation, authority, and decision‑making access — can mirror broader racial inequities.
Honoring Black History Month also means acknowledging that legal institutions must continually examine workplace culture, bias, and access to leadership opportunities. Equity and anti‑racist practice require both external advocacy and internal reflection. For Black legal professionals across roles, this dual responsibility is often lived daily.
Carrying the Legacy Forward
Nikki Giovanni reminds us that while we are not responsible for the past, we are responsible for the future we build.
The legal profession we inherit today was shaped by Black attorneys who fought to make justice real — not just promised. Their brilliance was not only in endurance, but in strategy, courage, and vision.
Legal advocacy alone has never been enough to produce lasting change. Community organizing, movement leadership, and community lawyering have always worked alongside litigation and policy advocacy to transform systems.
At the same time, the legal profession is not immune from the inequities it seeks to address. Law firms, courts, and legal aid organizations continue to wrestle with workplace inclusion, bias, and anti‑Blackness. The responsibility to address inequity within legal institutions is not separate from the work of justice — it is part of it.
As Elie Wiesel wrote, “What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppression but the silence of the bystanders.” Here, “victims” include those targeted by discrimination, racism, and anti‑Blackness within workplaces and institutions. The responsibility of legal professionals is not perfection, but participation — to speak, to act, and to help build institutions where justice is practiced internally as well as externally.
Black History Month reminds us that the work of justice continues — in our laws, our communities, and within our own institutions. The work still before us continues — with us.
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