Ella Baker Summer Internship Program

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

 

The Center for Constitutional Rights created the Ella Baker Summer Internship Program in the spring of 1987 to honor the legacy of Ella Josephine Baker, an African American hero of the civil rights movement. The internship is designed to provide students in their first and second years of law school with training in movement lawyering and advocacy, and to immerse them in a summer of social justice seminars, skills trainings, and other related events.  The goal of the program is to train the next generation of social justice lawyers.

 

The Ella Baker Summer Internship Program is part of CCR’s larger Social Justice Institute. Other facets of the Institute include fellowship opportunities, semester internships, Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses, and an annual training institute. Due to the success of the Ella Baker Summer Internship Program, CCR has expanded our ability to engage and train young activists and law students.  

During the summer, law students have the opportunity to intern at one of three CCR work sites. These opportunities include performing casework in our New York City office; working with our partners at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana; or doing legal and field advocacy work with our partners at the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At each site, students work with a team of lawyers on a range of pressing legal issues, conduct legal research and writing on active CCR cases and/or supporting advocacy efforts in CCR-related issue areas. Students also have the opportunity to work with CCR or partner staff on various campaigns and projects during the summer. In Haiti, the students will take an immersion course in Kreyol and work on advocacy-based, on-the-ground assistance with BAI and their Haiti-based grassroots partners.

 

Ella Bakers typically attend weekly seminars with scholars and activists, engaging in open discussions on various human rights issues. In addition, students are provided opportunities to attend court proceedings, view films about social justice issues, and other law-related panels and events and speak with a Public Interest Advisor about post-graduate fellowships and future career path.

 

Why Is The Internship Named After Ella Baker?

Ella Baker devoted her adult life to social change. During the Great Depression, she organized consumer cooperatives and wrote, taught, and lectured on the subject of consumer affairs for the Federal Works Progress Administration. In the late 1940’s, Ella traveled throughout the southern region of the U.S., often alone and in segregated areas, to organize growing chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  Baker became the first employee of the newly created Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the late 1950’s. Although she was considered for the executive director position, Baker took on an unofficial advising role and helped the group initiate voter registration campaigns throughout the south.

Ella Baker strongly believed that the power needed for significant change exists in members of affected communities and the youth, rather than in centralized leadership and that “strong people don’t need strong leaders.” Many considered her greatest influence to be with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). As an advisor to SNCC, whose members were generations younger; she rarely intervened in strategy discussions, although her advice was often sought. Baker stated: Most of the youngsters had been trained to believe in or to follow adults if they could. I felt they ought to have a chance to learn to think things through and to make decisions.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is proud to honor her legacy with the Ella Baker Summer Internship Program. It is our hope that many young people will be inspired to follow in her footsteps to combine their developing legal skills with the promotion community and self-empowerment as key tools for social change

 

Application Instructions:

CCR strongly recommends that students commit to the full 10-week program.

Please submit the following documents:

 

Timeline for second year law applicants:

• October 28^th - All 2Ls should send an electronic version of application materials to ellabaker2012@ccrjustice.org by this date.
• November 14^th -December 9^th - Interviews for 2Ls will be held.
• December 16^th - Final decisions for 2L candidates will be made by this date.

Timeline For 1L’s

• January 6th- All 1L applicants should send an electronic version of application materials to ellabaker2012@ccrjustice.org by this date.
• January 23rd - February 3rd - Interviews for 1Ls will be held. Please note that the bulk of available internships will be given to 2L students. We will conduct very limited interviews of 1L candidates.
• February 10th - Final decisions for 1L applicants will be made by this date.

Please take notice of the above schedule when considering offers from other organizations. CCR may consider requests for expedited decisions on a case-by-case basis; we expect all students to adhere to the timeline outlined above.

Funding

During the summer, CCR offers three annually funded internships for students interested in working on specific issue areas. These named fellowships include:

 

The Isabel and Alger Hiss Government Misconduct Internship has been made possible through the generous gift of the Estate of Isabel Johnson Hiss. Each summer CCR awards up to $5,000 in stipends to a second year law student with a strong commitment to public interest law and a demonstrated interest in working on CCR’s broad ranging government misconduct docket. If interested, please submit a separate letter of interest discussing why you are applying for this specific fellowship.

The Millspaugh Catlin International Human Rights Internship has been made possible through the generous gift of the Millspaugh Catlin Family Foundation, honoring the memory of Herman Copelon. Each summer, CCR awards up to $5,000 in stipends to a second year law student with demonstrated interest in and commitment to advancing international human rights issues. The candidate selected will work on cases under CCR’s international human rights/corporate accountability docket. Preference is given to CUNY law students. If interested, please submit a separate letter of interest discussing why you are applying for this specific fellowship.

 

The Gregory H. Finger Racial Justice Internship has been created in honor of former Executive Director, long-serving Board Member, and former Board Chair Greg Finger. This fellowship is a reflection of his commitment and dedication to social justice and education. This internship is offered to any undergraduate, graduate, or law school student with a strong commitment to public interest law and/or advocacy and a demonstrated interest in working on CCR’s broad-ranging racial justice docket.  If interested, please submit a separate letter of interest discussing why you are applying for this specific fellowship.  Applications from people of color and people from low income communities are particularly encouraged. 

 

 
Because we have limited resources, CCR strongly advises applicants to make every effort to secure their own funding. In addition to the above fellowships; other funding may be available for law students who are unable to secure funding on their own. CCR is committed to recruiting a diverse class of Ella Bakers from all backgrounds and can provide funds where necessary.

For more information about CCR, please visit our website at http://www.ccrjustice.org. If you have any questions, please contact An-Tuan Williams, Education and Outreach Associate, at:

Center for Constitutional Rights
666 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 614-6466
Fax (212) 614-6422
E-mail:awilliams@ccrjustice.org