The Northwest Justice Project Board of Directors applauds the Washington Supreme Court for recognizing the role of the courts and the legal community in creating and perpetuating a system that devalues Black lives, and for calling on the legal community to engage in individual and collective action to dismantle systemic racism and oppression of Black people.
At this historic moment, NJP joins with people in Washington and across the country to condemn the searing examples of our long national history of state sanctioned, often fatal, violence visited on Black men, women and children for simply being. Black Lives Matter.
Today, we must also acknowledge the consequences of racism in dramatically increasing the tragic toll of the pandemic on the Black community. And we condemn the vicious responses we have seen across the country to demands for basic justice. NJP stands with the protesters who have asserted their constitutional right to assemble and express their outrage at systemic racism and demand change to our institutions and society.
As Washington’s largest provider of free civil legal services for people in poverty, NJP is deeply committed to advancing racial equity in the legal system and in all the institutions that adversely impact Black people, Indigenous people, and all people of color.
The attorneys, staff, and Board of NJP see all too often the effects of systemic racism in the lives of our clients and in their communities across Washington. Whether the problem is the treatment of people of color in the courts, lack of access to health care, denial of educational opportunities, the impact of Legal Financial Obligations, unfair labor and employment laws, or consumer and housing discrimination, race is the determining factor in the disproportionate negative outcomes faced by people in poverty.
We recognize that our Board will be more effective through the work of each individual member to overcome racism in our lives and to strengthen NJP as it works toward greater equity and justice. We have embraced the Washington Race Equity Justice Initiative (REJI) commitments. At this consequential time in the life of our communities, we will prioritize working to ensure our justice system – criminal and civil – is truly just. NJP’s Board of Directors will prioritize equity and inclusion in every aspect of our work. In this way too, we will advance our mission of combating injustice, strengthening communities, and protecting human dignity as we continue the struggle for a society free of racism.
Signed,
- Brendan Donckers
President - Elizabeth Neidzwski
Vice-President - Vicente Omar Barraza
- Marsha Chien
- James Corning
- Carolyn Estrada
- Richard J. Harrison
- Maggie Kennedy
- David LaSarte-Meeks
- Raul Martinez
- Chiedza Nziramasanga
- Carmen Pacheco-Jones
- Robert Roche
- Russell J. Speidel
- Sean Waite
- Richard White