The NAACP, the oldest civil rights organization in the United States, has tapped a former Biden-era Justice Department official to head its legal advocacy work.
Christine Clark, who previously led the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, will be the NAACP’s next general counsel, the organization announced Wednesday.
According to an announcement first shared with The Associated Press, Clark will oversee strategy and legal operations for the NAACP, and will lead litigation efforts on voter access, gerrymandering, and the First Amendment, among other civil rights and social justice issues.
“The NAACP has stood on the front lines of justice for more than a century, and I am deeply honored to join this historic organization at this critical moment in our democracy,” Clark said in a statement.
“Our communities are under relentless attack — from the ballot box to their wallets — and this moment requires us to use the full weight of the law to advance justice and accountability,” she said.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said Clark is “the legal mind this moment demands.”
“As we face unprecedented attacks on voting and civil rights, having Christine Clark at the helm of our legal operations brings strategic vision, disciplined leadership, and innovative advocacy,” he said in a statement.
The NAACP said Clark’s appointment shows how “legal muscle” is being mobilized to combat Republican efforts to dismantle voting rights protections dating back to the Civil Rights Movement, when black Americans overcame legal oppression and intimidation, largely in Southern states.
The NAACP filed suit nearly a year ago, arguing that President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to require proof of citizenship for voter registration violates states’ constitutional rights to regulate voting, and discriminates against voters of color. Federal judge She banned this in Juneand sided with a group of Democratic state attorneys general who also challenged its constitutionality.
Clark was the first woman and the first black woman appointed to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. She held her position from 2021 to 2024, and sought reforms in police departments regarding abusive practices. Including Memphis after the 2023 beating death of Tyree Nichols. She was also part of the Department of Justice team that Prosecution of an avowed white supremacist for hate crimes After a shooting that left 10 black people dead at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022.
Before joining the Department of Justice, Clark earned degrees from Harvard University and Columbia Law School, and served as president and CEO of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which was founded more than 60 years ago to challenge segregation.
Since leaving federal service, she has served as a professor at Howard University Law School, and will continue to do so while working at the NAACP.