Civil rights leader
Barbara R. Arnwine, Esq. launched “Igniting Change with Barbara Arnwine” in March 2015 on Radio One’s WOL 1450 a.m. During the hour-long show, she endeavors to engage, challenge and equip her audience as activists in realizing a more just and equal society.
Serving as president & executive director of the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee) since 1989, Ms. Arnwine is internationally renowned for contributions on critical justice issues including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. She also created the legendary Voting Rights “Map of Shame” in 2011, which remains popular. A graduate of Scripps College and Duke University School of Law, she continues to champion civil rights and racial justice issues nationally and internationally in the areas of housing and lending, community development, employment, voting, education, and environmental justice. Ms. Arnwine’s work also includes women’s rights, immigrant rights, judicial diversity, criminal justice reform, racial profiling, health care disparities and LBGTQ rights.
She is a well-known leader of Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, launched in 2004 to assist historically disenfranchised persons to exercise the fundamental right to vote.
Ms. Arnwine has received numerous national, regional and local awards including the National Bar Association’s Vince Monroe Townsend, Jr., Legends Award (2014) and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights Award (2013). She is also the recipient of the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Fearless Trailblazer Award (2013) and in October 2011, she was one of five recipients of the prestigious Gruber International Justice Prize for her excellence in defending and promoting civil rights and gender equity throughout the U.S. Ms. Arnwine is a frequent conference orator and has penned numerous articles and is regularly quoted and featured by national and local media outlets.
She is board vice-president of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and serves on the board of directors of MomsRising and Independent Sector. She is an honorary board member of Welcome.us and is also a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.
Ms. Arnwine is a native of California and was raised in Louisiana along with her siblings. She is an avid gardener and also enjoys mentoring youth and aspiring attorneys, reading and spending time with her family. Ms. Arnwine resides in Prince Georges County, Maryland, where she is an active member of First Baptist Church of Glenarden.
