Racial Justice: The Role ofCivil Legal Assistance

Abstract

Racial discrimination and isolation underlieand exacerbate the legal, social, andeconomic problems that low-income peopleof color face. To address their legalproblems, individual legal aid lawyers andparalegals have to employ both antidiscriminationstatutes and community-basedstrategies; legal aid programs need toincrease race-based advocacy, and thecivil legal aid system as a whole has tofocus on racial justice.1 None of this willhappen, however, absent a change inwhat legal aid programs do and a newfocus on racial justice throughout the civillegal aid community.