Founder and Executive Director, Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition
What are the aims and objectives of the Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition (YBLOC?)
I started YBLOC as a law student at NYU in 2019 to empower and protect Black voters. One of our core programs is to fully fund young Black lawyers and law students to travel across the country to communities where Black voting power is under attack or not fully realized to conduct a variety of nonpartisan voter engagement activities. We host education sessions in churches, barbershops, beauty salons, and union halls. We’re talking—but, more importantly, listening—to Black voters about the issues impacting our democracy.
Last year, we fully funded 72 young Black lawyers and law students to travel across the country to do organizing work in states such as Michigan, Texas and South Carolina. In some communities, we held listening sessions with Black voters. We have compiled all of that data into a forthcoming report called “The State of Black Democracy.” And we plan to make it available so that other voting rights and impact-litigation organizations have a clear sense of the community's priorities. In other communities, we educated voters about how elections shape the state and federal judiciary, and conducted voter protection efforts in areas where Black voters face barriers to the ballot.
What do you enjoy about your work at YBLOC and what challenges do you face?
I appreciate the fact that I get to facilitate what I call the ministry of presence in a profession that too often entices its members to see themselves as separate and apart from the broader community. We are facilitating a new relationship among Black lawyers in the broader Black community that roots them in the concerns of the community.
We are primarily funded through grants and the support of individuals who believe in our mission. But entrepreneurship is challenging. It’s not a standard part of the law school curriculum. Launching something from the ground up—raising money and building infrastructure—is not easy, but it’s also a beautiful opportunity. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. In my hometown of Dallas, my family owned a restaurant called Harrell’s Catfish for 50 years. It was the sort of place where the clergy, activists, and everyday folks gathered to discuss and debate the issues. Seeing how my family maintained that restaurant for decades taught me a lot about building an institution.
Why did you enroll at NYU Law?
I’ve always been inspired by people like Thurgood Marshall, Constance Baker Motley, Marian Wright Edelman, Fred Gray and so many other Black lawyers who used their talents to advance civil rights. I was also inspired by an uncle, Elvis Young, who I never met. He was a trailblazer as one of the earliest Black students to attend Baylor University, where he was a pre-law student before he passed away. His legacy motivates my legal pursuits today.
As an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I studied political science. After that, I went to Washington DC, where I worked in the Obama administration as an aide to the Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx ’96. While working with Secretary Foxx, I made the decision to attend law school at NYU. There are few law schools with the pedigree that NYU Law has in producing public interest lawyers. I also wanted to attend a law school in a diverse, urban environment where the issues affecting everyday people would be at our doorstep.
Did you have any favorite professors?
The first is [Professor of Clinical Law Emerita] Kim Taylor-Thompson, who taught criminal law. She conveyed everything in a way that was accessible and digestible, and she created an environment that was safe for us to learn. The other is [Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence] Sally Katzen, who taught the Legislative and Regulatory Process Clinic that I participated in. Her great gift was that she made the material, which can be a bit esoteric, come alive. And she did it through tremendous storytelling about her years of experience in Washington, DC and current events.
What was your most memorable experience at NYU Law?
Being a part of the Black Law Students Association [BLSA] was probably the most defining aspect of my law school career. BLSA was a community of law students committed to social and racial justice. It was also a community devoted to helping each other become better students, advance professionally, and achieve our goals. To have such an authentic community in a space that can sometimes be oriented toward individualism and competition was very powerful.
Why did you launch YBLOC?
We were living in the post-Shelby County landscape. Shelby County v. Holder eviscerated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And I felt that we, as young Black lawyers and law students living in that moment, had a responsibility to protect Black voting power. There was such a pent-up desire to do something. But in law school, you had a scenario where we were learning about the great struggles for civil rights and racial justice, but watching things crumbling around us. So I started organizing. I led a small group of BLSA students down to South Carolina in early 2020—a pivotal election year—which served as our first foray into this work and went from there. I take great pride in being the founder and executive director, but YBLOC has been built through the investment of every law student, lawyer, funder, supporter and advisor who helped make this vision happen.
How do you assess the current state of voting rights?
We’re experiencing the proliferation of attacks on our democracy and racial justice. We are living in a period of problematic reactionary politics. It’s unleashing a new era of voter suppression and creating an environment of what I call voter depression. But we are not hopeless. I believe that action breeds hope, and hope breeds action. It’s a virtuous cycle. My hope lies in the power of the people and in their capacity to shape a democracy that works for us.
How do you spend your leisure time?
I’m either listening to R&B music or attending a concert. I’m also a voracious reader. I love reading about the civil rights movement. We can learn a lot from our ancestors and forebears. And I’m a deep person of faith. Staying anchored in my belief that all things work together for our good is one of the ways I find joy and strength day-to-day.
Posted April 2, 2025