Wade Henderson

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance. (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. Please help by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view. (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Wade Henderson
President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Incumbent
Assumed office January 7, 2021 Acting
Preceded by	Vanita Gupta
In office 1996–2016
Succeeded by	Vanita Gupta
Personal details
Born	(1948-04-22) April 22, 1948 (age 73) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education	Howard University (BA) Rutgers University, Newark (JD)

Wade J. Henderson (born April 22, 1948) is an African-American advocate, community leader and governmental activist. He has served as president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR) and counsel to the Leadership Conference Education Fund.^[1] He is a graduate of Howard University and the Rutgers University School of Law, and a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the founder and president of Wade J. Henderson, LLC, which gives strategic advice on civil and human rights issues, a former Joseph L. Rauh, Jr., Professor of Public Interest Law at the David A. Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia^[2] and a prominent commentator on civil rights and race relations in the United States.

Henderson's public activities have included participation in social justice coalitions to developing strategy regarding domestic and international civil and human rights policy. During his tenure as president, LCCHR policy initiatives included reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act and lobbying for passage of the Help America Vote Act, the Fair Sentencing Act, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the ADA Amendments Act, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He also supported the confirmations of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, and U.S. Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.

During Mr. Henderson’s tenure as president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights the organization grew from 170 to 230-member organizations and was active in the public discussion of local and international civil and human rights.^{[citation needed]} He has attended human rights conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, Germany, South Africa, Israel, and Chile. In 2015, Wade testified before the U.N. General Assembly to call for an international response to the global rise of anti-Semitism and other hate crimes.^{[citation needed]}

From 2007-2011 Henderson served on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion,^[3] which was created in 2006 to provide the FDIC with advice and recommendations on access to banking services by underserved populations.^{[citation needed]} He also advocated for fair-chance hiring practices at banks to give ex-offenders a chance at securing work.^{[citation needed]}

As of February, 2021 Henderson's volunteer activities focused on improving educational and financial opportunities for disadvantaged populations. He is a member of the Board of Directors and a pro bono advisor at the Center for Responsible Lending, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing Service and a member of the Foundation Board of Directors of the District of Columbia School of Law (DCSL).^{[citation needed]}

Prior to his role with The Leadership Conference, Henderson directed the Washington Bureau of the NAACP.^[4] He directed the organization’s government affairs and national legislative programs; and served as associate director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union^[5]

Awards[]

Honorary Doctorate, Queens College School of Law, City University of New York ^[6] Honorary Doctorate, Gettysburg College^[7] Member, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

References[]

External links[]

• Appearances on C-SPAN

This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please by adding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles. (January 2021)