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Norton on Floor this Evening to Honor John Payton, NAACP Legal and Educational Fund Leader

April 16, 2012

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will honor the memory of the late John A. Payton in a Special Order tonight on the floor of the House of Representatives, shortly after 8 p.m. Payton was also remembered at a memorial service at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center this afternoon.

Payton was president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and a former corporation council (attorney general) for the District of Columbia. He was also one of the first African American partners at a major D.C. law firm, and served as counsel in many major civil rights cases.

"John Payton was among the most distinguished successors to Justice Thurgood Marshall, who held the same position at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. John will also be remembered for his excellence as the District's lead lawyer, for his fealty to the affairs of his hometown both before and after his service here, and for his lifelong struggle for human rights," Norton said.

Published: April 16, 2012