Now is the time, more than ever, to bring in, build up, train, and unleash a cadre of lawyers and legal workers ready to aid in the fight for Black liberation. After a two year-long-pandemic and one of the largest mass movements for racial justice in this country’s history, we need lawyers who are trained-up and committed to help actualize the radically different world that communities and organizers have dreamed up. This year’s fellowship focuses on equipping a group of 13 fellows with the skills, relationships and resources necessary to support the fight for Liberation.

The fellowship will help participants build the relationships and skills necessary to build out strong movement lawyering infrastructure. Fellowship participants will be eligible for a 12-18 month Movement Lawyering Placement at a local movement organization in 2023.

The fellowship will culminate in the Law for Black Lives 2022 Membership Convening on July 14th-16th, 2022. Fellows will be asked to mobilize local movement lawyers by engaging in the following activities: hosting an online or in-person information session and committing to either bringing a delegation of 10 people from their city to the Law for Black Lives 2022 Convening or hosting a POD of at least 10 people who will participate in the conference digitally.

The six month fellowship will focus on a series of tactical approaches to movement lawyering. Each month will focus on a different tactic and will include grounding in our politics (of Black Queer Feminism(s), Abolition and Anti-Capitalism), community building, and narrative development.

Meet the Fellows

Arneta Rogers (she/they) is the director of the gender, sexuality & reproductive justice program at the ACLU of Northern California. Their work focuses on advancing reproductive justice in the criminal justice system, and expanding and protecting access to reproductive healthcare for low- and no-income people, communities of color, immigrants, young people, LGBTQ people and all communities on the margins throughout California. Prior to joining the ACLU, Arneta was the policy director at Positive Women’s Network-USA (PWN). At PWN they launched a yearlong policy fellowship to prepare women and people of trans experience living with HIV to lead in policy advocacy. She also organized a constituent-led process to develop a new policy agenda guiding the organization’s strategic advocacy priorities. Arneta co-convened the first ever Black United Leadership Institute for Black organizers, activists, and advocates working to end criminalization against communities disproportionately impacted by HIV and mass incarceration.

Arneta Rogers

Bria Nelson (they/them) is a Legal Fellow at the ACLU of Kansas where they assist with litigation regarding the constitutionality of Kansas’ death penalty, working closely with the national ACLU’s Capital Punishment Project (CPP). Bria graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law with Pro Bono Distinction in 2021. During law school, Bria was deeply committed to social justice advocacy, working with the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, the ACLU of Kansas, CPP, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and served on the executive boards of several student organizations, including the Black Law Students Association and the Dean’s Diversity Leadership Council. In their free time, Bria enjoys organizing with local community activists, spending time with their pets, roller skating, watching anime, painting, and tending to their house plants.

Bria Nelson

Jameka Hodnett (she/her) is currently the Director of the Climate Equity Campaign at A/B Partners. Prior to joining A/B, Jameka led the organizing team at ACLU as Deputy National Campaigns and Organizing Director. Jameka has over a decade of experience as a campaigner, organizer and legal advocate, working on the forefront of finding just solutions to climate and environmental issues. Previously, she was Head of the Organizing and Campaigns at 350.org, Deputy Director of Civic Engagement at the League of Conservation Voters and Director of Programs at DC Solar United Neighborhoods. She also spent several years at the Sierra Club working as a Lead Climate Justice Organizer. She has a J.D. from the University of District of Columbia David A.Clarke School of Law and a B.A. in International Affairs and Climate Policy from Trinity University.

Jameka Hodnett

Kiah Duggins (she/her) Kiah’s work focuses on using movement lawyering and the redistribution of power and resources to challenge policing and the criminalization of poverty. She is currently an attorney for CRC’s Policing Project in Washington, D.C. and Houston, Texas. Kiah collaborates with directly impacted communities to dismantle the criminal legal system’s exploitative and anti-Black origins and practices. Kiah worked with the ACLU of Northern California and a coalition of community members to challenge anti-Black policing and school-to-prison pipelines. She also worked on litigation with Neufeld, Scheck and Brustin LLC to challenge police misconduct nationwide. Kiah’s experiences as a Fulbright grantee in Taiwan helped her to imagine a world with less policing and a more equitable distribution of resources like education, healthcare, and housing.

Kiah Duggins

Shakeer Rahman (he/they) is a lawyer and community organizer with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition. He was previously an Impact Litigation Attorney at The Bronx Defenders, where he worked on systemic lawsuits against police and courts, as well as a law clerk to Judge Beverly Martin on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar on the California Supreme Court. Shakeer has written about policing and prisons in the Harvard Law Review, the New York Times, Al Jazeera America, Dissent Magazine, the London Review of Books, and Counterpunch.

Shakeer Rahman

Ashley Braxton (they/she) is a community organizer, legal worker, and co-founding member of the Central Ohio Freedom Fund. Outside of work Ashley has volunteered with the National Lawyers Guild as a legal observer and trainer, organized grassroots demonstrations against police violence, and hosted university lectures on racial justice. Their goal within legal work is to democratize legal knowledge and help others overcome systemic barriers to better legal outcomes. In their spare time, Ashley enjoys pottery and other crafts, reading/writing, and streaming on Twitch.

Ashley graduated from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law with a Juris Doctorate in 2016.

Ashley Braxton

Dawn Oliver-Dysart (she/her) is a community organizer, activist and native of Kansas City, MO. Her work is unapologetically focused on Black liberation, abolishing systems of harm and oppression, and centering and learning from the most impacted members of community. Among other things, Dawn is a matriarch, abolitionist, community organizer, legal professional, avid gardener, and authentic Aries. She is a co-founder and serves as the Executive Leader of Operation Liberation – a Black queer led, Black centered non-profit organization whose work centers bail support, mutual aid, and care-centered support for those impacted by pretrial detention. She is also a co-founder of the Freedom House Collective, the physical home to Operation Liberation’s work and a co-created incubator space, safehouse and political home for the collaboration and development of Black grassroots organizers and abolitionists in the greater Kansas City area.

Dawn Oliver-Dysart

Janie Williams (she/her) earned her J.D. from American University Washington College of Law. As a member of the Criminal Justice Clinic, Janie represented juvenile clients throughout Maryland on various issues including misdemeanors and juvenile life without parole cases. Throughout law school, Janie held internships with Refugee Law Project in Kampala, Uganda; Bread for the City in the District of Columbia; and the Exoneration Initiative in New York City. Janie was also a Marshall-Brennan Fellow where she taught Youth Justice and Constitutional Law to public high school students in the District of Columbia. Prior to law school, Janie worked with the NYC Department of Education to successfully increase Universal Pre-Kindergarten enrollment rates citywide, specifically amongst disenfranchised minority populations throughout the boroughs; she also served as a community organizer. She received her undergraduate degree from SUNY Buffalo State, where she studied Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, and Religious Studies.

Janie Williams

Maria de Lourdes Vaello-Calderon (she/her) is a community lawyer focusing on housing rights and land justice from a human rights perspective. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she is an advocate and activist for the independence of Puerto Rico and the liberation of colonial subjects. Her work centers on legal support and empowerment so that people are in a better position to defend their rights and the rights of their communities. She obtained a Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Puerto Rico and a J.D. from the School of Law of the same institution. She currently works for Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico aiding disaster survivors in the process of ensuring a safe roof and a just recovery.

Maria de Lourdes Vaello-Calderon

Ashley Centeno Betances (she/her/ella/elle) is an Afro-Caribbean woman, an afro-feminist and daughter of an immigrant woman. She has a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Puerto Rico and a juris doctor from the Interamerican University School of Law. In her years at the University, she was part of the student residents council on campus. She participated in student strikes and protests, and is a faithful believer that protests are necessary and effective. She has worked with marginalized communities, victims of gender violence, the elderly, and immigrants, providing support in litigation and home relocation processes. She currently works with attorneys at a nonprofit organization that provides free legal education and support to low-income people on issues of fair recovery after disasters, the right to housing and affordable rent.

Ashley Centeno Betances

Fredrisha “Sha” Dixon (she/her) is a Mother, Activist, Community Organizer, and Legal Professional. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee but has called Los Angeles County her home for the past ten years. She has been a resident of Inglewood, CA, where she is a 2022 Mayoral Canidate, for seven years.

Fredrisha was sparked into activism in 2014, after the extrajudicial police killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. It didn’t take long for her to realize that the city she lived in had issues similar to those in Ferguson. Through her activism she helped challenge the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Police Department regarding their lack of accountability and transparency regarding police misconduct, killings, and brutality.

Wanting to be more impactful in her work she decided to study law and graduated from Trinity Law School with a Juris Doctor degree in May of 2021. During her legal studies Fredrisha worked as a Law Clerk for the Los Angeles County Public Defenders Office, working in both Juvenile and Adult Courts in Inglewood and Compton, CA. Staying true to her commitment to positively impact the youth, she served as a Mentor to middle and high school girls through Compton Mayor Aja Brown’s Young Ladies Empowerment Initiative, BLOOM. She also served as President of the Black Law Student’s Association at Trinity Law School.

Before transitioning to Public Service work Fredrisha worked as an Actress and Tv Producer, producing a talk show that allowed her to put the training in Broadcast Journalism that she obtained from Middle Tennessee State University to use. Fredrisha is a bright young leader who is passionate about advocating for her community and striving for Black liberation. She is a proud 2022 Law 4 Black Lives Legal Fellow and is excited about the opportunity to learn valuable legal skills that she can utilize to empower the people of Inglewood, CA.

Fredrisha Dixon

Jen Jenkins (they/them) is a freedom dreamer who currently works as a policy advocate with the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. Jen recently moved from occupied Hawai‘i to DC, where they immediately became involved in liberation movement spaces. Jen has successfully advocated for law and policy change in LGBTQ health and the criminal legal system. Jen grounds their work in a strong belief that laws and policies should be transformed (or abolished) to allow for the global liberation of oppressed people from the current systems in place. Jen also reads avidly, is a Trekkie, and cuddles with their dog as often as possible.

Jen Jenkins

Natalia Marte (she/her) was born in New Jersey, raised in Brooklyn, and is now a Buffalo/Rochester transplant. At the age of 13 years old, Natalia partnered with local organizations and advocated for the restoration of formerly incarcerated individual’s voting rights. Since then, Natalia has worked with orgs such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation to canvass neighborhoods and organize the community around issues related to policing and housing rights. After moving from Brooklyn to Buffalo obtain her law degree at the University at Buffalo School of Law, Natalia joined BLRR to continue her movement work. She engaged in political education that assisted in her radicalization and participated in BLRR’s various campaigns such as disbanding the strike force, participatory budgeting, canvassing the communities to increase attendance at the Police Oversight Meetings, the lawsuit against the Buffalo Police Department, and much more. While Natalia remains a loyal member of BLRR, she now serves as the Chair of BLRR’s Advisory Board and assists with the strategic decision making and background operations of the organization.

Natalia is currently an Appellate Court Attorney at the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department in Rochester, New York where she focuses on civil and criminal appeals. Prior to this position, she interned at the Bronx Defenders in their Criminal Defense Practice where she represented indigent clients in bail hearings and other court proceedings. Natalia also interned at the American Civil Liberties Union in Puerto Rico and where she was tasked with investigating human rights violations occurring in the prisons all across the island of Puerto Rico. This investigation lead to a report submitted to the United Nations and a request to launch an investigation on the sexual/physical abuse, lack of mental health treatment, and other forms of mistreatment occurring in the prisons. Natalia is also a doctoral student at the University at Buffalo and seeks to utilize her dissertation to propel the abolition movement forward. Natalia is deeply committed to the abolition of prisons and the police force and looks forward to engaging community members on refunding what rehabilitation, accountability, and safety looks like for us.

Black Love Resists in the Rust (BLRR) is a Buffalo-based, member-led, abolitionist organization of Black folk and POC that believe that – through leadership development, a shared politic, and community organizing – we will build safe and flourishing communities that resist the ills of white supremacist, cis-heteropatriarchal, capitalism; including policing. BLRR grounds its work on four pillars: transformative organizing, healing justice, embodied leadership, and political education. In addition, BLRR is currently focusing its efforts on its redefining safety campaign, their lawsuit against the City of Buffalo, divesting from policing and investing in communities, and much more.

Natalia Marte