Howard University law professor and civil rights attorney who joined the NAACP’s defense of the Columbia defendants
Leon Ransom was a constitutional law scholar and an experienced civil rights attorney associated with Howard University School of Law. He worked with the NAACP on legal challenges involving racial discrimination and the constitutional rights of Black Americans.
After the raid on East Eighth Street, Ransom joined the national legal team assembled to defend the Black men charged in connection with the uprising. Alongside Z. Alexander Looby, Maurice Weaver, Thurgood Marshall and other attorneys, he helped examine the evidence, challenge the treatment of the prisoners and prepare a defense centered on equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. The team’s work contributed to the acquittal of 23 of the 25 men brought to trial.
Leon Ransom
