Taylor Dumpson*

Taylor A. Dumpson, J.D. is Associate Counsel at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Ms. Dumpson was born in Washington, D.C., and raised on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. After graduating from Wicomico High School, she received her B.A. in Law and Society with a concentration in Social Science from American University and her J.D. with a concentration in Rights and the State from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
 
In Spring 2017, while pursuing her Bachelor of Arts degree at American University in the Nation’s Capital, Ms. Dumpson became the first Black woman to serve as president of the Student Government in the University’s 124-year history. In the wake of her ground-breaking election, she was the target of a racially-motivated hate crime on her first day in office, followed by cyber-harassment by members of white supremacist groups. However, Ms. Dumpson did not allow these acts to deter her from her goal of becoming a civil rights attorney, nor did she let it break her.
 
Instead, Ms. Dumpson fought back by pursuing litigation against the Neo-Nazis who cyber-harassed her. And she won.
 
Not only did Ms. Dumpson reach a landmark settlement—based on principles of restorative justice—with one of the defendants in her case, she also received a favorable judgment from Judge Collyer of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Court. Judge Collyer found “that a [causal] nexus exists between the troll storm created [one of the defendants] and Ms. Dumpson’s enjoyment of [American University] and its resources and that Ms. Dumpson was targeted because of her race and gender.” This is one of the first times that a Court has held that online harassment can interfere with one’s use of a public accommodation.
 
Ms. Dumpson continues to raise awareness on the impact hate and discrimination have on our communities and ways to actively combat them. Ms. Dumpson has shared this message by testifying before Congress and giving a TEDx Talk, and in interviews with various print, television, and radio broadcast media such as CNN, NBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, WTOP, and WAMU.
 
Ms. Dumpson has interned with the New York Civil Liberties Union (New York, NY), NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (New York, NY), Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Stop Hate Project (Washington, DC), Capitol Hill Office of Congresswoman Fredericka S. Wilson (D-FL) (Washington, D.C.), Wicomico County Office of the State’s Attorney (Salisbury, MD), and the District Office of Delegate Sheree Sample-Hughes of Maryland’s District 37-A (Salisbury, MD).

Ms. Dumpson’s personal story is featured along with the narratives of other survivors of hate crimes in a book edited by Arjun Singh Sethi, called “American Hate: Survivors Speak Out.” In addition, Ms. Dumpson is the recipient of the Lawyers’ Committee’s 2018 Frank R. Parker Client Award, the 2019 National Emerging Leader Award, American Association for Access, Equity, and Diversity, a 2019 Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy Summer Fellow, the 2019 Digital Ethics Award, Loyola University Chicago, the 2019 Kay Family Award, Anti-Defamation League, the 2021 Cardozo Center for Public Service Law Student Impact! Gamechanger Award, and the 2021 Cardozo School of Law E. Nathaniel Gates Award.

Bar Admissions: Admitted in the District of Columbia and New York.