LDF Mourns the Passing of Gloria Steinem

Read a PDF of our statement here.

Today, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement on the passing of Gloria Steinem:

"Trailblazer. Troublemaker. Crusader. Icon. The list of things Gloria Steinem was to so many people is innumerable. And yet, despite its length, it hardly does justice to the force of nature she was, or the indelible mark she left on our world.

"Generations of women owe their financial independence, their legal rights, and their sense of what's possible to her fearless advocacy. At a time when it was far from the norm, Gloria understood - and taught others to understand - the role of Black women in feminism's origins, and the ways racism and sexism have always been intertwined. Crucially, she expanded the umbrella of the women's movement to include working women, women of color, and LGBTQ+ women.

"Gloria was one-of-a-kind. May her memory light the torches of the rest of us, as we finish the work she started."

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Founded in 1940, theLegal Defense Fund (LDF)is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has beencompletely separatefrom the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF'sarchive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.