10 Years of JusticeAid: 2023 Impact Report

Banner photo above: 2023 Fall Benefit Concert for Black Voters Matter. LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, (BVM co-founders) shown here with other guests.

10 Years of JusticeAid: 2023 Impact Report

Dear JusticeAid Family,

You’ve heard it many times—we are in unprecedented times as a country. Our democracy and the freedoms we have taken for granted are under unrelenting attacks. JusticeAid is prepared to fight and has hit the ground running in 2024. As we move into this critical election year, JusticeAid is excited to share our 2023 Impact Report and reflect on 10 years of trumpeting justice.

We are proud to announce that in 2023 JusticeAid made grants totaling $600,000 to Black Voters Matter (BVM). For 2024, JusticeAid will continue fighting for open and fair elections and has renewed our partnership with BVM. Already this month, we made a $52,058 grant to BVM, bringing our cumulative ten year total to almost $3 million dollars! In addition to hosting two sold-out concerts and a public forum on voter suppression with MSNBC’s Joy Reid, we also launched a monthly feature, Justice + Art, and an artist in residence program. We thank each and every donor and sponsor for supporting JusticeAid and making 2023 a record year.

As you review our 2023 Impact Report, we hope you, our loyal supporters, will take pride in how we have grown and what the JusticeAid community has accomplished together. With your help, we will climb even higher in 2024. Together let’s make sure that every voice is heard and every vote is counted.

Kim Duckett Coaxum, CEO
JusticeAid

Grants Since 2013

Since our founding in 2013, JusticeAid has granted nearly $3 million dollars to amazing grantee partners working to ensure access to justice for the disenfranchised and marginalized. JusticeAid is able to grant 100% of contributions, sponsorships, and ticket sales to its grantee partners because board members and annual gift donors cover all administrative and program costs.

Grants Since 2013

Since our founding in 2013, JusticeAid has nearly $3 million dollars to amazing grantee partners working to ensure access to justice for the disenfranchised and marginalized. JusticeAid is able to grant 100% of contributions, sponsorships, and ticket sales to its grantee partners because board members and annual gift donors cover all administrative and program costs.

2023

Voting Rights

Black Voters Matter

$600,000 Granted

In 2023 and the year ahead, we are confronting the challenges of voter suppression. Our 2023 fall and spring benefit concerts celebrated the joy of music and the transformational work of grantee partner Black Voters Matter (BVM). At our 2023 free public forum, Boots to the Ballot Box, we heard from those fighting voter suppression on the front lines and learned how we can collectively protect the voting rights of marginalized communities.

2023 Events: Click on the + for each year's highlights and be sure to scroll through the photo galleries.

JusticeAid Celebrates Nina Simone
Spring Benefit Concert with Lisa Fischer, Corey Glover, Jennifer Hartswick, Jazzmeia Horn, Shenel Johns, Alicia Olatuja, Scott Sharrard, Vuyo Sotashe, and Brianna Thomas.
May 22, 2023
City Winery, NYC

Tank and the Bangas
Fall Benefit Concert
October 16, 2023
The Hamilton Live, Washington, DC

Boots to the Ballot Box
Public Forum with Joy Reid, MSNBC Host; Cliff Albright and Latosha Brown, Co-Founders of Black Voters Matter; and Damon Hewitt, Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
October 16, 2023
True Reformer Building, Washington, DC

2022

LGBTQ Rights

SMYAL

$500,000 Granted

SMYAL (Supporting and Mentoring Youth Advocates and Leaders) supports and empowers lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in the Washington, DC metropolitan region. Your contributions helped SMYAL provide at-risk young people with safe housing and provided programs to help them build self-confidence, develop critical life skills, and engage their peers and community through service and advocacy.

2022 Events

Bessie Smith: Empress of the Blues
Spring Benefit Concert with Paula Cole, Valerie Simpson, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Nona Hendryx, Madeleine Peyroux, Allan Harris, Morley, Chris Bergson & Ellis Hooks, and Samara Joy.
May 16, 2022
City Winery, NYC

Erasure: The Otherization of Queerness
Public Forum with Imara Jones, TransLash Media; US Rep. Ritchie Torres; Rev. Bertram Johnson, Riverside Church of New York; Ceyenne Doroshow, G.L.I.T.S.; Charles King, Housing Works; Jorge Membreno, SMYAL; and Adrian Mora, student activist.
September 18, 2022
The Riverside Church, NYC

We reach our $2 Million fundraising mark!
An Evening with Kandace Springs
Fall Benefit Concert for SMYAL
October 11, 2022
City Winery, Washington, DC

2021

Police Accountability & Community Empowerment

Neighborhood Defender Service’s PACE (Police Accountability/Community Empowerment) Program

$421,000 Granted

JusticeAid’s grant to Neighborhood Defender Service helped launch the expansion of their PACE program (Police Accountability/Community Empowerment), building on their model of community-based, holistic public defense to challenge police impunity, fortify civil rights, and build community power and wealth.

2021 Events

Safety for Whom? Racist Policing In Communities and Schools
Public Forum with Sherrilyn Ifill, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; US Rep. Cori Bush; Angela J. Davis, AU Washington School of Law; NDS/PACE Exec. Director Rick Jones; Kris Henning, Georgetown Law; Sally Lee, Teachers Unite; The Resistance Revival Chorus; and pianist Matthew Whitaker.
May 2, 2021
Riverside Church, NYC

Change of Tone with Robert Glasper and Terrence Martin
Virtual Spring Benefit Concert with Robert Glasper and Terrence Martin, Ben Williams, Justin Tyson, DJ Jahi Sundance, and special guest trumpeter Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah.
May 27, 2021
Miracle Theater, Los Angeles, CA

The Rage of Innocence Author Talk on the criminalization of Black youth with Georgetown University Law Professor Kris Henning in conversation with American University Law Professor Angela Davis
October 19, 2021
Busboys and Poets, Washington, DC

Mavis Staples and Special Guest Amy Helm
Fall Benefit Concert
October 19, 2021
Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC

2020

Voter Suppression & Voter Engagement

Election Protection/866-OUR-VOTE, a project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

$300,000 Granted

Election Protection/866-OUR-VOTE, a project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition formed to ensure that all voters have an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. JusticeAid’s grant supported Election Protection’s work to challenge any obstacles to voter participation at all stages of the process—from voter registration, absentee and early voting, to casting a vote at the polls.

2020 Events

The show goes on! First Pandemic-era virtual event:
Voices to Protect the Vote
Virtual Spring Benefit Concert with host Rita Houston, WFUV (90.7), Zack Feinberg and David Shaw of The Revivalists, Kandace Springs, Leyla McCalla, David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, and Paula Cole.
May 18, 2020

Lift Every Voice and Vote
Virtual Public Forum with Reverend Michael Livingstone, Riverside Church; Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight and Fair Count; Hakeem Jeffries, U.S. Minority Leader, House of Representatives; Marcia Johnson-Blanco, Election Protection/866-OUR-VOTE; journalist Ray Suarez; Kristen Clarke, U.S. Assistant Attorney General; Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino; and pianist Matthew Whitaker.
June 14, 2020
Riverside Church, NYC

Youth Film Challenge
In Partnership with Civic Life Project
September 2020

We hit our $1 million mark!
Voices to Protect the Vote
Virtual Fall Benefit Concert with Rosanne Cash, Ivan Neville, Tom Morello, Regina Carter, Lila Downs, and concert host Bari Koral.
October 17, 2020

2019

Immigration

Immigrant Defense Project

$138,000 Granted

The Immigrant Defense Project works to secure fairness and justice for immigrants in the racially-biased U.S. criminal and immigration systems. JusticeAid’s grant advanced their focus not just on the impact of these unjust systems on communities but also the relationship between anti-immigration sentiments and legal policies that do not serve justice.

2019 Events

Indefensible: Immigrants Trapped by the Criminalization of the Immigration Process
Public Forum with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D); Alina Das, NYU Law, Immigrant Rights Clinic; activists Jonathan Jayes-Green and Alejandra Pablos; and moderator Mizue Aizeki, Immigrant Defense Project.
April 15, 2019
Public Welfare Foundation, True Reformer Building
Washington, DC

Los Lobos Spring Benefit Concert
April 16, 2019
The Hamilton, Washington, DC

Two back-to-back concerts in NYC and DC!
Matthew Whitaker Fall Benefit Concert
October 15, 2019
The Jazz Standard, NYC

The Baylor Project
Fall Benefit Concert with vocalist Jean Baylor and her husband, famed drummer Marcus Baylor.
October 22, 2019
The Hamilton, Washington, DC

2018

Criminalization of Poverty

Civil Rights Corps and Essie Justice Group

$230,000 Granted

In 2018, JusticeAid’s grants were awarded to two civil rights organizations whose missions fight back against the criminalization of poverty. Civil Rights Corps is dedicated to correcting systemic injustices in the American legal justice system. Essie Justice Group harnesses the collective power of women with incarcerated loved ones to end mass incarceration’s harm to women and communities. JusticeAid’s grants provided funding to advance each organization’s mission.

2018 Events

Criminalization of Poverty
Spring Public Forum with U.S. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta; Civil Rights Corps’ Alec Karakatsanis; and Essie Justice Group’s Gina Clayton. Hosted by former US Solicitor General Seth Waxman, Esq. and WilmerHale.
April 17, 2018
WilmerHale, Washington, DC

Billie Holiday: Songs for Lady Day
Spring Benefit Concert celebrating the legendary blues musician’s birthday with performances by Paula Cole, Marshall Crenshaw, Dom Flemons, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Kandace Springs.
April 24, 2018
The Hamilton, Washington, DC.

Racism and the Criminalization of Poverty: 21st Century Debtors’ Prisons in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Fall Public Forum with Jeffery Robinson, ACLU Trone Center for Justice; Gina Clayton, Essie Justice Group; Alec Karakatsanis, Civil Rights Corps; Johnny Perez, National Religious Campaign Against Torture; author Madison Strempek; performing artist Abena Koomson-Davis; and poet/educator Randall Horton.
November 11, 2018
Riverside Church, NYC

The 300th Anniversary of New Orleans
Fall Benefit Concert with Dr. Michael White and his Original Liberty Jazz Band with gospel/blues singer Topsy Chapman
November 13, 2018
City Winery, NYC

2017

Defending People With Mental Health Challenges

The Mental Health Project of the Urban Justice Center

$116,000 Granted

The Mental Health Project advocates for low-income New Yorkers living with serious mental health concerns. JusticeAid’s grant helped advance its mission during a year when an estimated 4.5 percent of all US adults were struggling with a serious mental health issue and more than half of the people incarcerated in jails reported having mental health challenges.

2017 Events

Barriers to Justice for New Yorkers Facing Mental Health Issues
Public Forum with NYT journalist Michael Winerip; Dr. Bobby Cohen, former Medical Director at Rikers and current member of the Board of Correction; Ann-Marie Louison, Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES); Janos Marton, JustLeadershipUSA and #CLOSErikers; and Koretta McClendon, Columbia Psychiatric Fellowship program.
May 23, 2017
NYC Bar Association, NYC

Our first themed concert in the Big Apple:
Gotta Serve Somebody: Bob Dylan’s Birthday
Spring Benefit Concert with artists Ruby Amanfu, Martha Redbone, Carrie Rodriquez, Somi, Kandace Springs, and Dar Williams celebrating the birthday month of Bob Dylan.
May 24, 2017
City Winery, NYC

2016

Year of the Child

Campaign for Fair Sentencing of Youth & The Gault Center

$90,000 Granted

The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth (CFSY) is a national nonprofit that leads efforts to ban juvenile life without parole and other extreme sentences for children. The Gault Center (formerly The National Juvenile Defender Center) promotes effective juvenile defender services. JusticeAid’s grants helped provide access to justice for those incarcerated as children.

2016

An Evening with Ozomatli and Trouble Funk
Spring Benefit Concert
May 15, 2016, Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC

A Conversation with Bryan Stevenson and Seth Waxman
Waxman, the 41st Solicitor General of the United States, discussed juvenile justice issues with Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
WilmerHale, Washington, DC

We launched our YouTube campaign, #WhatJusticeMeanstoMe.

2015

Freeing the Innocent

Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project & Innocence Project New Orleans

$120,000 Granted

JusticeAid proudly supported two Innocence Projects in 2015: The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of New Orleans. JusticeAid’s grants to each organization boosted their capacity to free innocent people sentenced to life in prison and those serving unjust sentences.

2015

Blind Boys of Alabama and Ani DiFranco
Spring Benefit Concert
May 17, 2015
Lincoln Theatre, Washington, DC

Ani DiFranco, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and the Roots of Music
Fall Benefit Concert
October 17, 2015
House of Blues, New Orleans

2014

Defending Veterans’ Rights & Empowering Youth

All Rise (formerly Justice For Vets) & The Youth Empowerment Project

$117,000 Granted

All Rise (formerly Justice For Vets) transforms the way the criminal legal system identifies, assesses, and treats veterans. In 2014, JusticeAid’s grant helped provide training and technical assistance to communities serving veterans involved in the criminal legal system due to substance use and mental health disorders.

In 2014, JusticeAid’s donors also drummed up support and awareness for The Youth Empowerment Project, New Orleans’ most comprehensive and established nonprofit serving at-risk, court-involved and out-of-school youth.

2014

Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews and his band, Orelans, with Shemekia Copeland
Fall Benefit Concert for All Rise (formerly Justice For Vets) with West Wing actors Melissa Fitzgerald, Allison Janney, and Janel Moloney.
September 14, 2014
Warner Theatre, Washington, DC

We travel to New Orleans:
Theresa Andersson and Flow Tribe
Spring Benefit Concert for the Youth Empowerment Project
April 30, 2014
New Orleans Botanical Garden, New Orleans, Louisiana

2013

Expanding Legal Services to Those in Need

Gideon’s Promise & Rising for Justice (formerly Law Students in Court)

$52,000 Granted

JusticeAid grant to Gideon’s Promise supported its work to expand public defender services in the Deep South. Additionally, JusticeAid’s grant to Rising for Justice (formerly Law Students in Court) provided support to advance that organization’s mission mentoring third-year law students to defend the civil rights of low-income DC community members, and inspiring the next generation of social justice advocates.

2013

The Morrison Brothers Band and Mary Ann Redmond
Spring Benefit Concert for Gideon’s Promise
April 12, 2013
The Hamilton, Washington, DC

Flow Tribe, Pants Velour, and The Morrison Brothers Band
Fall Benefit Concert for Rising for Justice
November 20, 2013
The Black Cat, Washington, DC

Education Is a Cornerstone of Our Mission

At JusticeAid’s free public forums, attendees gain insights into pressing civil rights issues through the personal stories shared by the trusted voices of our distinguished guests and grantee partners. During the forums, we’ve been fortunate to host conversations with such civil rights luminaries as Bryan Stevenson, Stacey Abrams, Kristen Clarke, and Alec Karakatsanis, as well as elected officials including current Minority Leader, US Rep Hakeem Jeffries.

See All Trusted Voices

Stacey Abrams
Founder, FairFight & FairCount

Cliff Albright
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Black Voters Matter

Latosha Brown
Co-Founder and Chief Doer, Black Voters Matter

U.S. Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO)

Kristen Clarke
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice

Gina Clayton
Executive Director, Essie Justice Group

Prof. Angela J. Davis
Distinguished Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law

Ceyenne Doroshow
Founder & Executive Director, G.L.I.T.S.

Vanita Gupta
Associate Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice

Prof. Kristin N. Henning
Blume Professor of Law and Director of the Juvenile Justice Clinic and Initiative, Georgetown University Law Center

Damian Hewitt
President & Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Sherrilyn Ifill
President & Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
Minority Leader of the US House of Representatives

Imara Jones
Political Journalist, Transgender Activist, & Creator, TransLash Media

Rick Jones
Executive Director and founding member, Neighborhood Defender Service

Alec Karakatsanis
Founder, Civil Rights Corps

Charles King
Co-Founder & CEO, Housing Works

Maria Teresa Kumar
President & CEO, Voto Latino

Sally Lee
Executive Director, Teachers United

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)

Bryan Stevenson
Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative

Ray Suarez
Journalist & Lecturer

Joy Reid
Host, MSNBC

U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY)

Seth Waxman
41st Solicitor General of the United States; Co-chair, Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation practice, WilmerHale

Joy Reid

Joy-Ann Reid is a political analyst for MSNBC and host of “The ReidOut,” which launched on July 20, 2020 and airs weeknights at 7 p.m. ET.

She is the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story” (Harper Collins, 2019), as well as “Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide” (William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2015) and “We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama” (Bloomsbury, 2016), which she co-edited with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Reid also hosts the podcast “Reid This-Reid That” with veteran journalist Jacque Reid and a book podcast called “What to Reid.”

Previously, Joy hosted the MSNBC show “AM Joy,” offering distinctive analysis and insight on the news every weekend morning. Before that, she hosted the weekday program “The Reid Report.” From 2011 to 2014, Managing Editor of theGrio.com, a daily online news and opinion platform devoted to delivering stories and perspectives that reflect and affect African-American audiences, while also serving as an MSNBC contributor. She has worked in local and national TV news, talk radio and as a press secretary during two presidential campaigns, including Barack Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008. Her columns have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, New York Magazine and The Daily Beast.

Reid graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in film in 1991. She taught a course on “race, gender and media” at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications’ New York City annex from 2017 through 2018. Reid and her husband Jason own a documentary film production company. They reside in Maryland and have three children.

Alec Karakatsanis

Alec Karakatsanis is an American civil rights lawyer, social justice advocate, co-founder of Equal Justice Under Law, and founder and Executive Director of Civil Rights Corps, a Washington D.C. impact litigation nonprofit. His recent work has targeted the American monetary bail system.

In 2016, Karakatsanis was awarded the Stephen B. Bright Award by Gideon’s Promise and the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by Public Justice. Karakatsanis graduated from Yale College with a degree in Ethics, Politics, & Economics, and Harvard Law School, where he was a Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Karakatsanis worked as a federal public defender in Alabama and then in the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

Kristen Clarke

Kristen Clarke is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. In this role, she leads the Justice Department’s broad federal civil rights enforcement efforts and works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all who live in America. Assistant Attorney General Clarke is a lifelong civil rights lawyer who has spent her entire career in public service.

Assistant Attorney General Clarke began her career as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division through the Department of Justice’s Honors Program. In 2006, she joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where she helped lead the organization’s work in the areas of voting rights and election law across the country. In 2011, she was named the head of the Civil Rights Bureau for the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where she led broad civil rights enforcement actions. In 2015, Ms. Clarke was named the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations founded at the request of John F. Kennedy. There, she led the organization’s legal work in courts across the country addressing some of the nation’s most complex racial justice and civil rights challenges. Assistant Attorney General Clarke received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Mr. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.

Mr. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of two highly acclaimed cultural sites which opened in 2018: the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.

Joy Reid

Joy-Ann Reid is a political analyst for MSNBC and host of “The ReidOut,” which launched on July 20, 2020 and airs weeknights at 7 p.m. ET.

She is the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story” (Harper Collins, 2019), as well as “Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the Racial Divide” (William Morrow/Harper Collins, 2015) and “We Are the Change We Seek: The Speeches of Barack Obama” (Bloomsbury, 2016), which she co-edited with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. Reid also hosts the podcast “Reid This-Reid That” with veteran journalist Jacque Reid and a book podcast called “What to Reid.”

Previously, Joy hosted the MSNBC show “AM Joy,” offering distinctive analysis and insight on the news every weekend morning. Before that, she hosted the weekday program “The Reid Report.” From 2011 to 2014, Managing Editor of theGrio.com, a daily online news and opinion platform devoted to delivering stories and perspectives that reflect and affect African-American audiences, while also serving as an MSNBC contributor. She has worked in local and national TV news, talk radio and as a press secretary during two presidential campaigns, including Barack Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008. Her columns have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, New York Magazine and The Daily Beast.

Reid graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in film in 1991. She taught a course on “race, gender and media” at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications’ New York City annex from 2017 through 2018. Reid and her husband Jason own a documentary film production company. They reside in Maryland and have three children.

Alec Karakatsanis

Alec Karakatsanis is an American civil rights lawyer, social justice advocate, co-founder of Equal Justice Under Law, and founder and Executive Director of Civil Rights Corps, a Washington D.C. impact litigation nonprofit. His recent work has targeted the American monetary bail system.

In 2016, Karakatsanis was awarded the Stephen B. Bright Award by Gideon’s Promise and the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by Public Justice.Karakatsanis graduated from Yale College with a degree in Ethics, Politics, & Economics, and Harvard Law School, where he was a Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Karakatsanis worked as a federal public defender in Alabama and then in the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

Kristen Clarke

Kristen Clarke is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice. In this role, she leads the Justice Department’s broad federal civil rights enforcement efforts and works to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all who live in America. Assistant Attorney General Clarke is a lifelong civil rights lawyer who has spent her entire career in public service.

Assistant Attorney General Clarke began her career as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division through the Department of Justice’s Honors Program. In 2006, she joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where she helped lead the organization’s work in the areas of voting rights and election law across the country. In 2011, she was named the head of the Civil Rights Bureau for the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where she led broad civil rights enforcement actions. In 2015, Ms. Clarke was named the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations founded at the request of John F. Kennedy. There, she led the organization’s legal work in courts across the country addressing some of the nation’s most complex racial justice and civil rights challenges. Assistant Attorney General Clarke received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Mr. Stevenson has argued and won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court, including a 2019 ruling protecting condemned prisoners who suffer from dementia and a landmark 2012 ruling that banned mandatory life-imprisonment-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. Mr. Stevenson and his staff have won reversals, relief, or release from prison for over 140 wrongly condemned prisoners on death row and won relief for hundreds of others wrongly convicted or unfairly sentenced.

Mr. Stevenson has initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts that challenge inequality in America. He led the creation of two highly acclaimed cultural sites which opened in 2018: the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. These new national landmark institutions chronicle the legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the connection to mass incarceration and contemporary issues of racial bias.

Programming

In 2023, in parallel with our fundraising for Black Voters Matter, we created an Artist in Residence program featuring spoken word artist Paine the Poet (Kris Sykes). We also launched Justice + Art to salute the talents of Black artists and build on past years’ celebrations of Queer Art (2022) and Protest Music (2020).

Paine the Poet

JusticeAid’s Artist in Residence, Paine the Poet (Kris Sykes), uses his gift of poetry and lyricism to promote a deeper understanding among his audiences of his fight to bring peace to flawed systems. Formerly incarcerated, Sykes got his start performing poetry at open mics in the Washington D.C. area to heal from his past. His performances gained him recognition, and he began making acting appearances. He most recently played Jalal Mahad in American Skin (2021), a film that follows a war veteran who seeks justice for the murder of his son.

JusticeAid Board of Directors

Photo: Day One Pictures

Neil Parekh; Blair Fishburn; Stephen Milliken; Natalie Jowett, President; Brandi Harden; Preston Pugh, Vice President; N. Kámeron Akhéru; Johnny Perez; Therese Steiner; Heather Pinckney; Steve Anderson; Kim Duckett Coaxum, CEO; Addy Schmitt; and Mark Rochon (seated). Not pictured: Anne Messner, Treasurer; Jeff Alston, Ray Conley, and Jennifer Turner.

Thank You Sponsors and Donors

We are grateful to our sponsors and longtime supporters as well as donors new to the JusticeAid family. Your contributions to JusticeAid will support the work of Black Voters Matter throughout 2024.

DONATE

Joan Goldfrank
Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund
Bruce Goldstein
Katherine Klein and John Gomperts
Jamie Gorelick
Sallie Gouverneur
Saul Green
Theodore Green
Sara Greenberg
Donna Guillaume
Anitra Hadley
David Haggerty
Ben Cooley Hall
Sandra Hanna
Jonathan Harris
Watani Hatcher
Jennifer Chandler Hauge
Meg and John Hauge
Stephen Hauge
Hodie Hazard
Sandra Hazen
Elizabeth Herman
Andrew Herman
Helen Hershkoff
Linda Hill
Steven Hilton
Lindsay Hoffman
Peter Hogness
Lynda Honberg
Garrett Horan
Sandra Horowitz
Andy Howlett
Megan Hull
Ellen and Jeffrey Huvelle
Ivins, Phillips & Barker Chartered
Michele Johnson
Marcia Johnson
Taz Jones
Natalie Jowett
Myla Kabat-Zinn
Kamyar Kadivar
Melinda and Peter Kaminsky
Alec Karakatsanis
Judith Karp
Daniel Kasriel
Howard Katz
Erika Kelton
Kay Kendall
Mary Kennedy
Jody Kent Lavy
Sat Nam Khalsa
Soo Kim
Rachel and John King
Elizabeth Kingsley
Charlie Kittredge
Diane Kolyer
Linda Kotis
Jerry Kristal
Diana Kuchta
John G. Laberge
Nathan Lankford
Eliot Larson
Charles Knox LaSister
Latham and Watkins
Kaiulani Lee
Jamie Levey
Sandy Levick
Richard Levie
Debra and Josh Levin
Robert Ley
Susan Galbraith
and David Lipton
Patricia Little
Robbin Blaine Livingston
Henrietta Lodge
Amy Lovejoy
Natalie Ludaway
Tanya Lundgaard
Jennifer Lyman
Anne MacKinnon
Meredith and Bob Maclay
Zachary Manganello
Pamela Manice
Robin Mann
Lauren Mantel
Linda and David Maraniss
George Marcou
Susan Marinello
Mamie Marsh
Robin Mason
Neil Matthews
Kathleen Mazure
Karen McAdoo
Alisha McCarthy
Renee McCoy Collins
Stephen McCreary
Terrence McNally
Thomas McNamara
Patricia McNamara
Danny Melnick
Anne Messner
Kim Michael
David Michalowicz
Carolyn Michener
Miller Chevalier
Wendy Miller
Peter Milliken
Gail Milliken
Rebecca Milliken
Stephen Milliken
Nancy Milliken
Anne Milliken
John Milliken
Logan Milliken
Wallace Mlyniec
Louise Moed
Andrea Monaghan
Steven Monder
Richard Moore
Shabaka Moore
Truman Morrison
Susan Jacobson and Dave Moskowitz
Bahman Mossavar-Rahmani
Leah Moushey
National Philanthropic Trust
Nat’l Religious Campaign Against Torture

Frank Netcoh
Alexandra Newman
Laraine Newman
Jon Nissenbaum
William Noling
John Noran
Jon Norris
Shadyne Nunley
Michael Oberlander
Ryan O’Connell
Emeka Ofodile
Geraldine Onorato
Laurie Orlando
Michael Orlove
Odessa Osby
Clint Ostrander
Timothy O’Toole
Neil Parekh
Jennifer Parish
Frances Pelzman
Marc Pfeiffer
Jill and Michael Phillips
Catherine Pierce
Roxana Pierce
Heather Pinckney
Milton Pippens
Barry Pollack
Leonard Polletta
Patty Potter
Nora Pouillon
Mary Priebe
Mark Michael and Margarita Prieto
Preston Pugh
Kathy and George Putnam
Bonnie Rait
Helen Randolph
Jessica Reid
Tracy Reid
Juannell Riley
Drew Roberts
Michele Roberts
Sheila Robinson
Page Kennedy and Mark Rochon
Patty Rosbrow
Ellen Rosenthal
Deborah Ross
Gregg Roth
Lucy Adams and Jim Rowe
Betsy Rowen
Leo Rowen
Richard Rubenstein
Angela Rye
Chase Rynd
Sharon Samek
Carolyn Sapontzis
William Saunders
Tim Scanlan
Addy Schmitt
Karen Schneider
Schwab Charitable
Juval Scott
Betsy Biben and Rick Seligman
Susan Shaffer
Robin Shaffert
Lori Shaw
Matthew Sheinin
Shertler Onorato Mead & Sears
Carol Sibley
Cathy Smith
Catherine Smith
Jennifer Smith
Kimberly Smith
Mshadoni Smith-Jackson
Cathy Solomon
Andrew St Laurent
Anne Stauffer
Therese Steiner
Amy Stitzel
Stephen Stroud
Cynthia Stroud
John Sullivan
Pattie Sullivan
G.G. Swain
Nancy Tartt
Patsy Taylor
Debbie Terlizzi
Karen Thomas
Amber and Denise Thomson
Tides Foundation
TisBest Philanthropy
Robert Toms
Vicki Townsend
Jenn Turner and Meghan Tucker
Linda Turner
Victoria Tyson
Linda Unland
Barbara Veliskakis
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
Rob Vogel
Jennifer Walner
Ellen and John Walsh
Irene Walton
Phyllis Ware
Seth Waxman
Lisa Wayne
David Weeks
Joann Weiner
Chris Whipple
Phoebe Whipple
John and Kathryn White
Harriet Whittington
Karen Williams
Dionis Williams
Scott Willis
WilmerHale
Andrea Winkler
Winky Foundation
David Wit
Allan Woods Flowers
Wool Family Foundation
Alison Wylegala
Jonathan Yarowsky
Carvonda Young
Lesley Zork
Zuckerman Spaeder
David Zweighaft

Law Offices of Jack H. Olender & Associates, PC
Marvin
Merrill Lynch
MGA Media Group
Miller Chevalier
MoCaFi
Parsons Corporation
Raffa
Reliance Fire Protection
Reverberate Media
Scram Systems
Shaw Institute
Shertler Onorato Mead & Sears
Thermo Scientific
USO
Veterans Campaign
Warner Bros. Television
WilmerHale
Xanthus Design
Zuckerman Spaeder

10 Years of JusticeAid: 2023 Impact Report

Banner photo above: 2023 Fall Benefit Concert for Black Voters Matter. LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, (BVM co-founders) shown here with other guests.