Video: The Post-Katrina Coast

Destruction wrought by the hurriciane exposed harsh realities of poverty and racism in the poorest region of our country. MCJ's video will give you an up-close look. The Mississippi justice community address the myriad legal problems hurricane victims are facing. MCJ is working to build a strong legal delivery system that coordinates direct advocacy in individual cases as well as broader legal strategies for systemic impact. Reality has set in--we are involved in a marathon, not a sprint.
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Fulfilling our nation's promise

The Mississippi Center for Justice is a nonprofit, public interest law firm committed to advancing racial and economic justice. The Center was founded in June 2002 by civil rights advocates, attorneys, social service advocates, and others committed to pursuing systemic advocacy strategies that combat discrimination and poverty in Mississippi. Its creation is responsive to a specific and urgent need to resurrect capacity for statewide, systemic, legal advocacy on behalf of low-income people and communities of color.

With the advent of the 21st century, Mississippi no longer had concerted, statewide capacity to combat continuing problems of discrimination and poverty. In the 1960s and 1970s, nonprofit law firms provided critical legal support to Mississippi’s civil rights movement. In the 1980s and 1990s, federal funding from the Legal Services Corporation supported statewide advocacy for low-income people. By 2002, legal needs of Mississippi’s low-income people and communities of color were addressed by a committed but overwhelmed few.

In response, the Mississippi Center for Justice has committed itself to creating an infrastructure for legal advocacy that achieves social justice through multiple strategies. Equality continues to elude most Mississippians in the areas of housing access, fair credit, quality public education, consumer protection, voting rights, employment opportunities, and fair working conditions. If the Center were to employ only traditional methods of legal advocacy to address these problems, a focused effort in any one of these areas could occupy the full attention of a small staff. Instead, the Center economizes its resources and accomplishes its goals by enlisting existing legal talent within the state and recruiting additional resources to supplement local efforts.

Four operating principles guide the Center’s mission:

Partnerships with leaders throughout the state: We convene stakeholders and connect communities with legal resources.

Generating the legal community’s commitment: We work with local leaders to develop legal strategies supportive of their campaign objectives and organize legal talent to support community goals.

Making every event a “call to action” event: We convene people in a way that generates commitments and causes “breakthroughs” in enrollment of leaders and legal talent.

Seeking, celebrating, and adapting models that work: We publicize and celebrate community and legal leadership examples that serve as inspirations, role models, and blueprints for action.