Constance L. Rice

Connie Rice
2007
Born	5 April 1956 (1956-04-05) (age 55) Washington, D.C., USA
Alma mater	Harvard University New York University
Occupation	Civil rights attorney

Constance L. “Connie” Rice (born April 5, 1956) is a prominent American civil rights activist and lawyer. She is also the co-founder and co-director of the Advancement Project in Los Angeles. She has received more than 50 major awards for her work in expanding opportunity and advancing multi-racial democracy. She is the cousin to former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.^[1]

Biography

Early years

Rice was born in Washington, D.C.. She earned her undergraduate degree at Harvard College in 1978. She won the Root Tilden Public Interest Scholarship to New York University School of Law, where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1984.

After law school, Rice served as law clerk to the Honorable Damon J. Keith, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and worked at Morrison & Foerster as a litigation associate. In 1991, she joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and became co-director of LDF’s Los Angeles Office in 1996.^[2]

Career

In her non-litigation work in the 1990s, Rice served as counsel to the Watts gang truce and spearheaded a statewide campaign to save equal opportunity programs. Mayors Tom Bradley and Richard Riordan appointed Rice to the governing board of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power where she served as president and enacted contracting reforms and environmental advances. In 1998, Rice helped lead a successful campaign to place aggressive public school reformers on the governing board for Los Angeles’ public schools.^[3]

As a litigator, Rice has filed class action civil rights cases redressing police misconduct, race and sex discrimination and unfair public policy in transportation, probation and public housing. She filed a landmark case on behalf of the Bus Riders Union that resulted in a mandate that more than 2 billion dollars be spent to improve the Los Angeles bus system. In 1999, Rice launched a coalition lawsuit that won $750 million for new school construction in Los Angeles - money previously slated for less crowded, more affluent suburban school districts. In these and other cases, Rice has led multi-racial coalitions of lawyers and clients to win more than $4 billion of injunctive relief and damages.^[2]

She has also provided commentaries for NPR.^[2]

Honors

In 1998, the Los Angeles Times designated her one of twenty-four leaders considered the "most experienced, civic-minded and thoughtful people on the subject of Los Angeles." And in October 2000, California Lawbusiness named her, along with California Governor Gray Davis and Warren Christopher, as one of California’s top 10 most influential lawyers.^[4] In May 2003, Rice received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Occidental College.^[2]

References

1. ^ CNN Programs - People in the News
2. ^ ^{a b c d} NOW. Politics & Economy. Income and Ineqality. Constance Rice: Biography | PBS
3. ^ Los Angeles Staff | Advancement Project Los Angeles
4. ^ Connie Rice Profile

External links

• Advancement Project
• PBS profile
• NPR commentaries

Persondata
Name	Rice, Constance L.
Alternative names
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Date of birth	April 5, 1956
Place of birth	Washington, D.C., USA
Date of death
Place of death