Clarke’s new role comes as voting-rights disputes remain a central battleground in civil-rights litigation in federal court, with the NAACP saying it intends to use its legal operation to challenge what it views as ongoing restrictions. The organization announced on Wednesday that it has named ex–Justice Department civil rights chief Kristen Clarke as its next general counsel, tasking her with running the NAACP’s legal strategy and operations and leading litigation efforts, according to the announcement shared first with The Associated Press.
In a statement accompanying the announcement, Clarke said, “The NAACP has stood on the front lines of justice for over a century, and I’m deeply honored to join this historic organization at this critical moment in our democracy.” She added that, in the NAACP’s view, “Our communities are under relentless attack — from the ballot box to their wallets — and this moment demands that we use the full weight of the law to promote justice and accountability,” as she described it.
The NAACP said Clarke will lead litigation involving voter access, gerrymandering and the First Amendment, along with other civil-rights and social-justice issues. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said Clarke is “the legal mind this moment demands,” pointing to the need for leadership in the organization’s legal work.
Johnson said the NAACP faces “unprecedented attacks on voting and civil rights” and that bringing Clarke “at the helm of our legal operations” gives the group what it described as “strategic vision, disciplined leadership, and innovative advocacy,” according to the statement.
The NAACP framed Clarke’s appointment as part of a broader legal push, saying the organization is mobilizing “legal firepower” in response to Republican efforts to dismantle voting-rights protections that the NAACP says date back to the Civil Rights Movement, when Black Americans overcame legal suppression and intimidation largely in southern states.
The new general counsel appointment also arrives while the NAACP’s attorneys are already in federal court over a voting-related executive order. The organization sued nearly a year ago, arguing that President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking proof of citizenship for voter registration violated states’ constitutional rights to regulate voting and discriminated against voters of color. A federal judge blocked the order in June, siding with a group of Democratic state attorneys general that also challenged the order’s constitutionality.
Clarke brings recent federal civil-rights leadership to the NAACP. She was the first woman and the first Black woman appointed to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, serving from 2021 through early 2025. During that period, the NAACP and the announcement highlighted that Clarke sought reforms in police departments over abusive practices, including in Memphis after the 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols, and that she was part of the DOJ team that prosecuted an avowed white supremacist for hate crimes after a 2022 supermarket shooting in Buffalo, New York that killed 10 Black people.
Before joining the Justice Department, Clarke earned degrees at Harvard University and Columbia Law School and served as president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which the announcement described as an organization founded more than 60 years ago to challenge racial segregation. Since leaving federal service, Clarke has served as a professor at Howard University School of Law and the NAACP said she will continue that role while working for the organization.