Jefferson, Eva

Eva Jefferson Paterson 

 

Paterson was a sophomore during the Bursar’s Office Takeover.  She served on the Student Senate and was instrumental in getting the cooperation of the Senate governing body to extend their support to FMO and AASU. The governing body submitted a letter to the administration requesting that they meet the student demands. Like many of the Takeover participants, Paterson faced a difficult decision to join her peers in the Bursar’s Office as her parents were not supportive of the demonstration as they told Paterson, “leave or they would cut off my money for school. All our parents were afraid for us.” 

Paterson continued her involvement in student politics as she was elected vice president of Associated Student Government (ASG) in the 1968-1969 academic year. It was during Paterson’s time as president of ASG that she gained campus and national recognition. Paterson was the first African American to be elected president of ASG. In her first month as president, the May 1970 campus shootings at Kent State, killing four student demonstrators, and Jackson State, killing two students, occurred. In response to these tragedies, some Northwestern students planned to torch the campus’ NROTC building.

Eva Jefferson

Paterson addressing approximately 5000 Northwestern students on Deering Meadow in May 1970.

However, Paterson gave an influential speech in front of approximately 5000 students at Deering Meadow, cautioning violent responses, linking such behavior to the violence and terror of the Ku Klux Klan when she stated, “I don’t know what they are, but they remind me of other torches on other nights.” Consequently, Paterson is credited for encouraging peaceful demonstrations, while defending student rights, gaining the name “peaceful warrior.” The Student Senate voted to respond to the tragedies by skipping classes that week to peacefully protest on Sheridan Road and engage in dialogue with people in the community about the United States’ involvement in Cambodia and Vietnam. Paterson received attention in the local news and the national press. In September 1970, Paterson represented views of student activists, criticizing the Nixon Administration’s response to the war in Vietnam in a debate with the then United States Vice President Spiro Agnew on “The David Frost Show.”

Eva Jefferson

 

 

Paterson later attended law school and became a civil rights attorney. In many of her cases, Paterson advocated for marriage equality, immigrant rights, equal opportunity, voting rights for ex-felons, and against the death penalty and racist and sexist policies. Some of her notable cases include an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the San Francisco Fire Department, cases of implicit bias in the exclusion of black jurors in jury selections, and lawsuits in support of affirmative action in California and against Propositions 54, 187, 209. She worked for the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, co-founded A Safe Place, a shelter for battered women in Oakland, California, worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights for twenty-three years, co-founded the California Coalition for Civil Rights, for which she served for eighteen years, worked as vice president of the ACLU National Board for eight years, chaired boards of Equal Rights Advocates and the San Francisco Bar Association, and founded and currently serves as president of the Equal Justice Society, in Oakland, California. The Equal Justice Society has contributed to improving the criminal justice system. Their mission is to “restore constitutional safeguards against discrimination” and “transform the nation’s consciousness on race through law, social science, and the arts” by educating the legal community about modern-day discrimination, conducting social science research on implicit biases, joining amicus briefs, and litigating against discriminatory cases.Eva Jefferson

Paterson has returned to the Northwestern campus numerously to speak. She has also been honored with a holiday named after her, Eva Jefferson Day, on January 16, to honor the ASG’s first black president. On this day Evanston youth are invited to campus to learn about Martin Luther King’s legacy.

 

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