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Join us on Wednesday, May 27th as we celebrate and honor the commitment of our award winners and their organizations at our 2026 Wiley A. Branton Awards Luncheon!
The Wiley A. Branton Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (WLC), recognizing extraordinary leadership and outstanding contributions to civil rights and equal justice.
In May, WLC will present the Wiley A. Branton Award to former career public servants of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Next year marks 70 years since the Civil Rights Division was established. On the eve of that anniversary, the WLC will – for the first time – give the Wiley A. Branton Award not to an individual but to a group of lawyers, reflecting the collective and often unseen public service that has advanced civil rights protections across decades of administrations of both parties.
The Civil Rights Division was created in 1957 under the leadership of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to help enforce federal civil rights laws. For generations, career public servants within the Division have carried out this work in a professional, fair, and apolitical manner. Recently, the Division has faced unprecedented departures, but these individuals have continued to stand up for the mission of the Division.
WLC invites you to join us in honoring these former public servants for their enduring commitment to the Constitution’s promise of equal justice.
To read more about the Wiley A. Branton Award, click here.
At a time when cities across the country have been subjected to violence — including lethal violence — Patagonia, the outdoor apparel company, has stood up and called upon the U.S. Senate to vote against further funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
The shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti happened about 20 minutes from our St. Paul store, a location that’s been part of the community for 21 years. It’s part of a tragic pattern that has seen U.S. citizens snatched by federal agents and shipped to facilities far from friends and family, and children as young as five detained, …
Tragically, it is not just Minneapolis that is affected. We are witnessing the militarization of our cities, the expansion of unchecked enforcement power, and a pattern of violence that disproportionately targets the most vulnerable communities and populations …
Congress has actual power to force a reckoning and create change, and it starts by ending further funding for ICE as leverage to demand a new course that protects human beings.
Patagonia has also rallied other businesses to step up and join in solidarity.
In both Congress and in corporate America, Patagonia has demonstrated what corporate citizen leadership should be.
WLC is proud and honored to present the 2026 Corporate Citizen Leader Award to Patagonia.
Forty years ago, Central American Solidarity and Assistance was founded as a nonprofit, working out of a church basement in Takoma Park, Maryland, to assist immigrants fleeing turmoil in Central America. The organization quickly grew into CASA, with more than 10,000 active members, supporting and advocating for a wide range of immigrants and later launching immigrant welcome centers in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Today, the organization is a national powerhouse, with over 189,000 lifetime members across 46 states and Puerto Rico.
In 2025, when Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a union sheet metal worker, father of three, and beloved CASA member, was unlawfully deported to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison (despite a 2019 immigration court order barring his deportation to El Salvador) CASA launched a national and international campaign to secure Kilmar’s freedom and fight for justice for his family.
CASA has partnered with the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (WLC) on several major immigrants’ rights cases over the years. Following the August 2025 federal takeover of the District of Columbia, CASA and other immigrants’ rights organizations joined WLC to sue the Department of Homeland Security for conducting illegal ICE arrests in D.C. In December 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction temporarily halting warrantless ICE arrests in DC. CASA and WLC have also gone to court to preserve Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, Afghans, and Cameroonians and to ensure that they are not unlawfully deported to danger.
CASA’s power has always come from the organizers, workers, students, and parents who continue to show up to support immigrant justice. This year, the organization launched a new chapter with a new brand identity: We Are CASA. Under the leadership of new executive director George Escobar, this rebrand reflects its national reach and a renewed commitment to “people-power: the united force of our families, organizers, and neighbors.”
WLC is proud and honored to present the 2026 Alfred McKenzie Award to We Are CASA.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee partners with the private bar and nonprofits to provide legal assistance to individuals and communities who experience violations of their civil rights. Each year, area lawyers and law firms contribute thousands of hours of their time on cases and projects. During the Wiley A. Branton Awards Luncheon, the Committee recognizes these important law firm and advocacy organization partnerships through Outstanding Achievement Awards.
In 2022, WLC and Cleary Gottlieb filed suit on behalf of Michael Rowe, a father who was brutally assaulted and detained by Special Police Officers (SPOs), private officers who receive little training but are authorized under D.C. law to carry guns and make arrests.
The incident at the heart of the complaint occurred after Mr. Rowe dropped off his mother and sister at the Park Southern Apartment complex, where they lived. With his three young children in the car, Mr. Rowe attempted to drive out of the property parking garage, but found it blocked by a group of SPOs that would not move. When the SPOs finally moved enough to let him exit, Mr. Rowe had words with them, and in response, the SPOs threatened to shoot him, assaulted him, pepper-sprayed him in the face, searched him, and purported to arrest him. Once the police arrived, they released Mr. Rowe and told him he would not be arrested.
Following the incident, Mr. Rowe required medical treatment for his injuries and suffered severe emotional distress. With the assistance of Cleary, Mr. Rowe sought to vindicate his rights against the SPOs, the company employing them, and the management company at the building. The matter was successfully resolved out of court.
In 2024, the Shenandoah County school board renamed two public schools after Confederate generals: Turner Ashby, Robert E. Lee, and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson — a devastating blow to students and their families.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee (WLC) and Covington & Burling LLP went to court.
In partnership with the Virginia NAACP and five incredibly brave Shenandoah County students, we sued to challenge the school board’s decision. No child should be required to attend a public school that glorifies the legacy of slavery and racial oppression. No student athlete should be forced to wear a jersey sporting the name of a Confederate general.
In September 2025, the judge ruled that forcing high school students to wear, carry, or compete under Confederate school names violates their First Amendment rights. While the ruling doesn’t immediately require the schools to change their names, it affirms that students cannot be forced to promote a pro-Confederacy message in order to participate in sports or extracurricular activities. Additional claims under the Equal Protection Clause, Title VI, and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act proceeded to a bench trial this past December. We expect a ruling sometime this spring.
Last summer, federal agents began arresting people in DC without warrants or probable cause — sweeping up even U.S. citizens and lawful residents, spreading fear across our communities, and violating the rule of law.
In September 2025, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, Covington & Burling LLP, We Are CASA, ACLU of DC, ACLU, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, and National Immigration Project filed a class action lawsuit against the Trump administration to stop illegal immigration arrests in Washington, DC.
In December 2025, we won a preliminary injunction blocking unlawful warrantless immigration arrests in DC, without probable cause.
Despite this court order, evidence shows that the Department of Homeland Security has continued their unlawful practice of warrantless arrests.
So we went back to federal court in March to hold ICE accountable.
The Franklin is an apartment building in Northeast D.C., where low-income residents have been subjected to atrocious conditions for years.
The Washington Lawyers’ Committee and co-counsel Crowell and Moring LLP filed suit in 2023 against Brookland Investments and Novo Management Corporation for neglectful management. The residents named in the lawsuit were subject to life-threatening gas leaks, widespread toxic mold, infestations of rodents and roaches, broken elevators, blocked and smoke-filled stairwells, and non-working smoke detectors.
The tenants sought an order from the court requiring management to make necessary repairs and security improvements, as well as restitution for harmed residents and penalties for violating D.C. law. In late 2025, the parties reached a resolution.
The number of women working in construction is on the rise, with Latina women accounting for the bulk of this growth. For many women, construction provides a stable job with good pay. But it remains a male-dominated industry, and there are female construction workers who experience near constant sexual harassment on the job. Women who complain are often branded as troublemakers, demoted, and even lose their jobs.
This was the experience of Ana and Carmela*, who alleged that their male supervisor subjected them to daily derogatory comments and barred female workers from using the bathroom other than during their lunch break. When Ana and Carmela confronted their supervisor, he fired them.
Gilbert LLP attorneys Michael Rush, Meredith Neely, and Janet Sanchez and paralegal Octavian Gill joined WLC in filing a lawsuit on behalf of Ana and Carmela, ultimately resulting in a settlement.
*Names have been changed.
For more than 30 years, the federal government restricted immigration enforcement at houses of worship and other “sensitive locations,” acknowledging that to carry out raids, arrests, and surveillance at those places could deny people of faith access to their places of worship and violate religious freedom rights.
Soon after taking office, the Trump administration abruptly abandoned these longstanding protections, giving ICE agents discretionary power to use their “common sense” when deciding whether to carry out enforcement actions at or near houses of worship.
In July 2025, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee, along with Democracy Forward and Gilbert LLP, filed suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secretary Kristi Noem on behalf of a large coalition of faith groups.
The lawsuit details how ICE agents have arrested people in church parking lots and during preschool pickup, and even attempted arrests while pastors were preaching. These actions have caused church attendance to decrease, forced congregations to lock their doors, and silenced the ministries that make worship communities safe for all people, regardless of their immigration status.
In February 2026, a federal court issued a preliminary injunction, halting immigration arrests and surveillance at churches for eight religious organizations, while the case proceeds. The Court’s ruling will extend to roughly 5,500 churches nationwide, including in Washington, D.C, Maryland, and Virginia.
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Wiley A. Branton was a tireless advocate for civil rights and equal justice throughout his entire career—as a private practitioner in Arkansas, a leader of federal agencies in Washington, and a Dean of the Howard University School of Law. The Wiley A. Branton Award is annually bestowed upon members of the legal community whose careers embody a deep and abiding commitment to civil rights and economic justice advocacy.
Dean Branton started his career in private practice in Arkansas in the 1950’s, representing African-American criminal defendants in often racially charged prosecutions. Working with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, he took on some of the most significant civil rights cases in the South, including the representation of the Freedom Riders in Mississippi, who were arrested for desegregating public transportation and public accommodations.
Among his most notable cases was the litigation that desegregated the Little Rock public schools. It was Dean Branton’s injunction that led to President Eisenhower calling out federal troops to escort African-American students to school. From 1962 to 1965, he led the Voter Education Project in Atlanta. During the three years he was at the helm, the project registered more than 600,000 African Americans to vote.
President Lyndon Johnson appointed Dean Branton to lead the President’s Council on Equal Opportunity and then to work on the implementation of the Civil Rights Act as special assistant to the United States Attorney General. In 1967, he became executive director of the United Planning Organization, the District of Columbia’s anti-poverty agency. Two years later, he directed the social action program of the Alliance for Labor Action.
From 1978 to 1983, Mr. Branton was dean of Howard University Law School. During his tenure at Howard, he dedicated himself to the training of the next generation of civil rights advocates.
Following Dean Branton’s death in 1988, his friend Justice Thurgood Marshall remembered him as a great man who “believed in people and believed in what was right.’’
Wiley Branton was an inspiration to everyone who had the privilege of knowing and working with him. He personified the legal profession’s ideal of pro bono service that is at the heart of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee’s mission. The Wiley A. Branton Award was first bestowed by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee in 1989. It takes its name from Wiley A. Branton, Sr., an extraordinary man whose life embodied civil rights advocacy of the highest order.
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