We congratulate the Old Dominion Bar Association as its members gather in Richmond this weekend to celebrate the organization’s 75th anniversary.

The ODBA is one of the oldest African-American state bar associations in the nation. Its illustrious membership has included some of the most brilliant legal minds and sharpest strategists dedicated to fighting Jim Crow and Virginia’s abominable Massive Resistance movement that sought to oppress African-Americans.

Their legal efforts have pushed the community forward on so many fronts.

Equal pay for black teachers in Virginia? Thank members of the ODBA.

Elimination of government-imposed separate and unequal public schools? Thank members of the ODBA.

While much has changed in 75 years, serious issues continue to afflict our community. Among them: Employment discrimination based on race, sex and age; police brutalization of African-Americans; voting rights rollbacks; unequal access to capital to create businesses; and criminalization of misbehaving schoolchildren by school officials and police stationed in schoolhouses.

We also rely on ODBA members across the state to ensure that African-Americans who understand our community and will treat people fairly are selected as judges in Virginia and to the federal bench.

Many of the ODBA’s members have served the state and their communities in elected and appointed leadership positions, on nonprofit boards and organizations and as judges.

Now more than ever, we need organizations such as the ODBA and the NAACP to provide leadership and counsel on these critical issues. People across the nation have been taking to the streets and packing meetings demanding answers and change.

Legal strategies and activism are paramount to realize needed transformations.

Our organizations can and should create change. If we don’t support them and use them, then who will?

We salute the ODBA and challenge its members across the state to continue to be “Virginia’s advocates for equal justice.”