LDF IN LOS ANGELES

"But LDF, an organization led by African-American and Jewish lawyers, had always been about diverse people bound by the mission of delivering on America's promise of equal treatment, liberty, and opportunity. Carrying out that mission in L.A. required a more multiracially and socioeconomically complex approach. In the city of gefilte-fish tacos and chitlin burritos, what choice did we have? "The immense talent of my colleagues aside, it was hard to see how such a tiny office could make a ripple in the ocean of established charities and nonprofit agencies in L. A. Most of the groups did admirable direct service--sheltering the homeless, aiding addict recovery , teaching reading, coaching minority businesses, tutoring children, running health clinics, helping women escape domestic abuse. Few service providers, however , had the artillery to take aim at the root causes of these problems. Sheltering the homeless is a critical service, but permanently breaking the cycle of homelessness requires reengineering the underlying political, economic, policy, medical, mental health drivers of the disease . As lawyers, we also were focused not on root causes but on our class action cases. "Our business as civil rights lawyers was to file lawsuits that enforced the U.S. Constitution's promises. LDF practiced 'impact litigation ' , class action lawsuits designed to change policy and fix systems that affect lots of people at once. We aimed to open doors, to put our clients at the table, influence policy choices, and vindicate rights . LDF had racked up years of tactical victories, winning scores of cases to enforce the relatively limited reach of the civil rights laws won in the 1960s. Unfortunately, I was soon to learn, our courtroom victories rarely touched the deeper problems beyond the reach of the judge. The cases more often restrained unfairness than delivered systemic fairness. I would have to plunge deep into L.A.'s hidden underclass before I truly understood Martin Luther King's warning that 'evils...rooted deeply in the structure of our society... suggest that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced .' Ending extreme poverty and racial exclusion could not be done with lawsuits alone. That also required a revolution in values and the political will to restructure our political and economic systems to open opportunity." P. 90-91, "The Blue Grip," POWER CONCEDES NOTHING, ONE WOMAN'S QUEST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA, FROM THE COURTROOM TO THE KILL ZONES, by Connie Rice (2012)