Martha Bergmark
American attorney and civil rights advocate
Martha Jane Bergmark is an attorney, civil rights advocate, and writer from Mississippi. Bergmark is best known for her work promoting civil justice through civil legal aid organizations at the local, state, and national level. Currently, Bergmark serves as the executive director of Voices for Civil Justice. In 1978, she co-founded the Southeast Mississippi Legal Services to provide federally funded legal aid services in a nine county area.
In the late 1980s, she served as the civil division director and then as senior vice president for programs of the Washington DC–based National Legal Aid and Defender Association. She held the position of president of the Legal Services Corporation which advocates for and administers federal funding for legal aid programs throughout the United States. In 2003, she moved back to Mississippi and co-found the Mississippi Center for Justice. Bergmark was recognized as a "Champion of Change" by United States President Obama's White House in 2011 for her work to advance racial and economic justice.
Early life, education, and family
Martha Jane Bergmark is the daughter of Robert Bergmark, a Methodist minister, and Carol (Comstock) Bergmark, a choir director. In 1953, her family moved to Jackson, Mississippi for her father to become a professor of philosophy at Millsaps College.
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