Stream a Lecture by Tom Saenz, President and CEO of MALDEF: Status Report on Latino Civil Rights after 20 Years as Nation’s Largest Minority Group

Racial Justice Speaker Series Presents Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel, MALDEF WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22, 2023, 12:10 – 1PM Status Report on Latino Civil Rights after 20 Years as Nation’s Largest Minority Group

REGISTER for in-person event REGISTER for livestream "Status Report on Latino Civil Rights after 20 Years as Nation’s Largest Minority Group" Twenty years ago, in January 2003, the Census Bureau announced that Latinos had surpassed Blacks to become the largest minority group in the United States.  In the recent 2020 Census, results show that Latinos accounted for 51 percent of the nation’s total population growth over the preceding decade despite the largest estimated undercount of any racial/ethnic group nationwide.  The leader of MALDEF for the last 13 and a half years will discuss how this new and expanding demographic growth and change present challenges to the nation and to the Latino community, as well as how Latino civil rights history informs these challenges. Thomas Saenz is President and General Counsel of MALDEF; he leads the organization in pursuing litigation, policy advocacy, and community education to promote the civil rights of all Latinos living in the United States in the areas of education, employment, immigrants’ rights, and voting rights. Saenz rejoined MALDEF in August 2009, after four years on Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's executive team. He previously spent 12 years at MALDEF practicing civil rights law, including four years as litigation director. He has served as lead counsel for MALDEF in numerous cases, including challenges to California Proposition 187, California Proposition 227, and California congressional redistricting. In 2016, Saenz argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Texas, representing intervenors defending Obama Administration deferred action initiatives. Saenz graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School; he clerked for two federal judges before initially joining MALDEF in 1993.

KJ