Although we ran the first of three “Kemba’s Nightmare” stories nearly eight years ago, no matter where I go today, someone invariably will bring up Kemba and how that story had impacted their life.

I am always quick to remind people that while I am proud that Emerge was the first publication to tell Kemba’s story, Elaine R. Jones, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF), was the person most responsible for Kemba’s freedom.

After reading the first cover story, Jones placed LDF’s legal apparatus behind her fellow Virginian, representing Kemba in various legal venues and ultimately making the formal request to Clinton for clemency.

Because of this and many other cases I have covered involving LDF since Jones took over the helm of the association in 1993 – the same year I became editor of Emerge – I was particularly saddened to learn that Elaine Jones has decided to step down as head of LDF. I don’t use the word “retire” because I don’t know if this passionate activist will ever be capable of retiring from the fight for justice.

I have enormous respect and admiration for Elaine Jones; Ted Shaw, her likely successor, and the staff at LDF. Like Elaine, who had rejected an offer to join a prestigious law firm in New York in order to advocate full-time on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged, many LDF lawyers could be partners in major law firms. Instead, they chose to work at Thurgood Marshall’s old organization, litigating some of the same issues that he addressed before joining the United States Supreme Court.

After graduating from Howard University with a degree in political science, Jones spent two years in the Peace Corps teaching English in Turkey. She then applied to the University of Virginia’s law school, though the state’s policy had been to pay for Blacks to study out-of-state rather admit them to all-White Virginia universities. The Norfolk, Va. native was accepted and became the first African-American woman to graduate from UVa’s law school.

Just two years out of law school, Jones was the LDF lawyer that litigated “Furman v. Georgia,” the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that abolished the death penalty in 37 states. Of course, she has since participated in thousands of other cases involving discrimination.

In a real sense, Elaine Jones represents a different level of civil rights activism. At one point, we focused on marches and demonstrations to highlight a particular problem. Jones and others have taken that protest to a higher level. They have moved from demonstrations in the streets to challenges in the suites, attacking deeply-ingrained institutional racism. And the beauty of Elaine Jones is that she chose this career path rather than one in corporate America that would have given her more creature comforts and fewer headaches.

There is also a lesson in the roles that LDF and Emerge magazine played in winning Kemba Smith’s freedom. I am not a lawyer and I don’t play one on TV. Elaine is not a journalist, though she has a better chance of being one than my becoming a lawyer. Each of us used our professional skills at address a problem confronting our community.

In the case of Emerge, we told Kemba’s story, even after a couple of other Black magazines she had contacted refused to investigate her plight. Once we published “Kemba’s Nightmare,” Elaine Jones vigorously pursued every legal option open to Kemba, including seeking presidential clemency. It was the combination of a magazine and a legal advocacy group doing what they do best that led to Kemba’s release. And that’s what we all should be doing. There’s no way to know when someone in another profession will follow-up on a project we have initiated. That’s not important. What is important is that, regardless of what profession we’re in, we should use our skills and talents to assist the most vulnerable in our community. When you do that, the rest will take care of itself. If you have any doubt about that, just look at the life of Elaine Jones.