JULIAN
JULIAN is a nonprofit organization founded by civil rights attorney Jill Collen Jefferson. JULIAN conducts investigations into suspected civil rights violations, provides free legal services, and advocates for policy and government action. In 2021, an $11.3 million wrongful death judgement was awarded in a case investigated by JULIAN, and in 2022, JULIAN filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Lexington, Mississippi. Background JULIAN was founded by Jill Collen Jefferson as a civil rights organization in 2020. Jefferson is an attorney from Jones County, Mississippi who graduated from Harvard Law School, and named the organization after her mentor Julian Bond. In 2017, Jefferson began research into suspected lynchings of Black people in the United States and then focused on Mississippi in 2019. To help support the organization, Jefferson received a grant from Jrue and Lauren Holiday through their JLH Social Impact Fund. 2020–2021 As a pro bono case, Jefferson investigated the hanging death of Willie Andrew Jones Jr. in Scott County, Mississippi. In December 2020, The Bellinder Law Firm and JULIAN filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of his survivors, which resulted in a 2021 judgment for more than $11.3 million. Jefferson and JULIAN then focused on advocacy