Jill Collen Jefferson
Jill Collen Jefferson is a civil rights and human rights attorney from rural Mississippi specializing in hate crimes, such as modern-day lynchings.[1], and the founder of the legal organisation JULIAN.[2]
Jefferson is a Harvard Law School graduate and a President Barack Obama-campaign speechwriter.
Early life[edit]
Jefferson is the youngest and only girl of four children to parents T.J. Jefferson][3] (who passed away in 2020) and Carolyn Jefferson. Her father was a farmer and carpenter, while her mother was a teacher who ran the local water system for almost 20 years.
Jefferson's family lived in a trailer in rural Mississippi – and the trailer didn't have a floor in some places, so her father put wood planks down the hall.
She encountered Jim Crow-type racism and sexism early. At age 5, Jill Collen Jefferson had her first such defining memory: She was permanently separated from her best friend, who was white – because of race and class.
Discrimination extended into her church and home, and when racism wasn't present, sexism was. But Jill Collen Jefferson used those encounters to learn how to fight so others do not have to endure the discrimination and racism she did on a daily basis – and works to put an end to civil rights violations by punishing those who commit such atrocities, no matter how long it takes.[citation needed]
College[edit]
When it was time to apply to college, Jill didn't know much about them besides those in Mississippi and the Ivy Leagues she saw on TV. She learned of the University of Virginia after googling it and following the recommendation of a family member. Never looking back, Jill wrote most of her essays on the spot and received a full academic scholarship.
Attending college at the University of Virginia cemented Jill Collen Jefferson's drive to tackle discrimination and civil rights issues. She double majored in history and the English Honors program, and minored in French, focusing on the Harlem Renaissance and the civil rights movement. She then joined the NAACP, was inducted into the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society (the oldest literary and debating society in the Western Hemisphere), and was elected president of the university's pre-law society. During her second year, she studied abroad, attending university and law school in Lyon, France.
It was during college that Jill Collen Jefferson learned about the intricacies of civil rights strategy gleaned from the civil rights movement and met the person who would change her life forever: Prominent Civil Rights Leader Julian Bond.
Bond mentored Jill Collen Jefferson, week after week for more than a decade, until the day he died, honing her analytical skills by training her how to think about and respond to civil rights issues. Jill Collen Jefferson often says that her parents gave her life, but Julian Bond showed her what to do with it.
Policy Analyst and Civil Rights Work[edit]
After college, Jill Collen Jefferson dedicated her time to civil rights work in various political arenas.
JOHN LEWIS
Jill Collen Jefferson began working in the office of Congressman John Lewis on Capitol Hill, where he spent time mentoring and guiding her. As a result of her work, Jill Collen Jefferson was hired as the lead researcher for Congressman Lewis' memoir, "Across that Bridge" (2012). While working in Congressman Lewis' office, she worked on numerous bills – including one to release the official Martin Luther King, Jr., FBI record.
CIVIL RIGHTS COLD CASE PROJECT
Jill Collen Jefferson was brought into the Civil Rights Cold Case Project by investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell to work alongside Ben Greenberg on the 1964 murder of Clifton Walker, who had been ambushed by the Ku Klux Klan on his drive home from work in Natchez, Mississippi. Jill spent years helping Greenberg investigate the case, following leads and finding witnesses who would speak up before they died.[4]
THE WHITE HOUSE AND OBAMA FOR AMERICA
While working on the Cold Case Project, Jill Collen Jefferson began interning in the White House and decided she wanted to be a speechwriter for President Barack Obama. Though she had no formal training, Jill Collen Jefferson relied on everything she had learned from her mentors and taught herself how to become an effective and vital speechwriter. Working as a Target cashier during the day, Jill taught herself speechwriting at night creating pretend crises and writing remarks in the voice of President Obama's. She would later land a job as speechwriter for the 2012 Obama campaign, the only woman and Black speechwriter on the team. Jill dropped everything and moved to Chicago, sleeping in her car on a street in the South Side her first night.
ORGANIZING FOR ACTION
Through her hard work, self-taught speechwriting ability, dedication, and passion for protecting civil rights, Jill Collen Jefferson became the chief speechwriter for Organizing for Action – where she authored and edited more than 350 remarks for President Obama, the executive director, and surrogates. As one of the first employees for the new advocacy platform founded by Michelle Obama and Jim Messina, Jill Collen Jefferson also developed the national messaging campaigns for comprehensive immigration reform, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Voting Rights Acts, and equal marriage, creating strategy and generating publicity for policy ideas to be implemented.
WENDY DAVIS
Jill Collen Jefferson became chief speechwriter for politician Wendy Davis, the state senator who was running for governor of Texas and had gained national recognition for a 13-hour filibuster on a woman's right to choose.
Harvard Law School[edit]
After Jill Collen Jefferson worked behind the political scenes, she decided it was time to go to law school to focus on a way she could personally make a difference in civil rights and human rights movements. She was accepted into Harvard Law School. Once enrolled, Jill Collen Jefferson became involved in the Prison Legal Assistance Program (PLAP), helping inmates who were trying to get out of prison, because she realized that while clients’ cases were “criminal justice,” often their civil rights had been violated or denied altogether.
She then served at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Washington D.C. during her first summer where she worked on a Louisiana death penalty case, compliance with a settlement in a 42 U.S.C. §1983 suit for search and seizure and excessive force and claims of action against state officials for Sixth Amendment violations.
Jill Collen Jefferson joined Advocates for Human Rights—a student group that performed legal work for international NGOs – and led projects involving human rights violations across the world.
She also worked with the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG), taking on human rights litigation projects and eventually drafting an indictment against Syrian dictator, Bashar Al-Asaad, during the Syrian war.
After law school, she worked at one of Washington, D.C.’s big law firms and filled her pro-bono portfolio with cases involving modern-day lynchings.
JULIAN[edit]
In 2020, just a few weeks before the murder of George Floyd, Jill Collen Jefferson founded JULIAN – a civil rights and international human rights organization that provides unique legal services and strategic movement-building counsel to victims and survivors of discrimination. She named the organization after her mentor, Julian Bond, and originally conceived of the organization's concept in the Innovation Lab at Harvard Business School while studying law. She used all her personal savings to build up and litigate JULIAN's cases, proving her concept with her own resources.
JULIAN is the only organization in the nation with a focus on modern-day lynchings, and the group has been dubbed the future of civil and human rights. In the summer of 2021, The Washington Post published two features in its Sunday edition on JULIAN's work here[5] and here.[6]
JULIAN convened Obama policy experts and submitted a civil and human rights policy agenda to President Joe Biden's administration the day after he was elected. JULIAN has also registered Black voters throughout South Mississippi.
In its first case, JULIAN won an $11 million civil judgment and solved the unsolved lynching of Willie Andrew Jones Jr. in Scott County, Mississippi. Jill Collen Jefferson and staff led an independent murder investigation into the case from start to finish, beginning in 2019 and discovered witnesses and other vital evidence to the case that police had not found or had misanalysed. As a result, justice was served in 2021 against the perpetrators who performed the lynching, and JULIAN is currently pursuing criminal charges.
Some of JULIAN's other cases include the lynchings of Raynard Johnson and Nick Naylor and the wrongful conviction of Marqus Profic, with continuing dedication to bringing justice to those victims of civil and human rights violations.
Media[edit]
Jill Collen Jefferson drew criticism for her interpretation of the U.S. Constitution during a live interview on the political talk show Politics Nation with Al Sharpton on MSNBC on August 28, 2021.[7] when she stated that a women's right to abortion is implied by a constitutional right to privacy. In comparison, Jill Collen Jefferson contended that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly provide an individual the right to bear arms but that that individual right, like the right to choose, is implied. She was referring to the fact that federal court of appeals, including the Supreme Court, had consistently found that the Second Amendment did not confer an individual right to bear arms until the Supreme Court reinterpreted the Amendment to imply an individual right in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008).
Personal life[edit]
Although Jill Collen Jefferson grew up in rural Mississippi, she also lived in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Texas, Massachusetts, and Virginia – before returning to her home state.
On the 23rd of every month, Jill Collen Jefferson celebrates her own self-made holiday: Freedom Day.
She lives and breathes championing human rights and ending discrimination, and she often dreams about the Civil Rights Movement.
In addition, she likes to collect vintage vinyl records from the 1960s.
Influence[edit]
Growing up, the first adult book Jill Collen Jefferson read was Oprah's biography, which completely changed the way she thought about life – and more specifically, how she thought about her own life. "Before I thought I could only work at a factory or be a teacher or secretary…thought I couldn't see life outside Mississippi," Jill Collen Jefferson said. "It changed my life; my dreams and hopes became different."
References[edit]
- ↑ "'There's a pattern': MS civil rights attorney on mistreated lynching cases across state". MSNBC.com. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
- ↑ "Julian". www.julianlegal.com. Retrieved 2022-07-22.
- ↑ Leader-Call, Jill Collen for The. "Hebron leader leaves legacy with children, community". Laurel Leader-Call. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ↑ "MCIR LIVE 'Hate: What America Faces'. A novelist, a journalist and a lawyer examine the forms hate can take in America". Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ↑ Brown, DeNeen L. (August 8, 2021). "Lynchings in Mississippi never stopped". Washington Post.
- ↑ Brown, DeNeen L. (August 8, 2021). "Mississippi's history of lynchings haunts grieving mother". Washington Post.
- ↑ Job, Anita (2021-09-01). "Attorney guest on Sharpton's show on MSNBC says pro-life people are like 'a suicide bomber'". Law Enforcement Today. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
External links[edit]
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