For three decades, 62-year-old Letitia “Tish” James, from her home base in Brooklyn, has been a towering presence in New York City and state politics. (It helps that she stands close to six feet tall.) As a public defender, councilwoman, New York City public advocate—and now state attorney general—she’s maintained what she calls a “unique perspective on the lives of people of color, working-class people. I view the world through a lens of struggle, so I’m particularly attuned to what is happening, not only in New York, but all across the nation. It keeps me humble.”
But the inverse of humility is pride. And she’s been proudly defiant in her ongoing “struggle.” She has taken on predatory residential-housing landlords. Fought to have school buses equipped with air-conditioning. Helped bring gender equity policy into law. Pushed for nondisclosure of salary history in hiring processes. Undertook a quixotic cage match against Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards project—which led to the construction of the popular Barclays Center. Through it all, she has never shied away from a confrontation if she believed she was right.
Now she’s squaring off against two of her biggest legal foes to date—the president and the National Rifle Association—vaulting her into the national limelight. “Since I’ve taken office [as A.G.],” she says, “we have filed about 50 lawsuits against the federal government to challenge these unlawful attacks [on civil rights]. And just because you have animus towards immigrants; or don’t believe in reproductive rights; see women as second-class citizens; or don’t believe that climate change is real—because you don’t believe in science—doesn’t excuse you from trying to circumvent the law. What’s right is right. What’s wrong is wrong. It’s black and white, contained in the U.S. Constitution. I urge anyone who is critiquing my performance and my office to pick up a copy of the Constitution.”
Her efforts to dissolve the NRA have drawn ire across the political spectrum, with some detractors claiming she harbors a vendetta against a group she described in a 2018 Ebony article as a “terrorist” organization. James dismisses accusations of partisanship or a hidden agenda. “The litigation we have initiated has nothing to do with my personal views, and it has nothing to do with the Second Amendment,” she explains. “The fact is, New York State has jurisdiction. The supervisory offices of the NRA are incorporated in the state. The alleged illegality came to our attention as a result of public accounts. We initiated a nine-month investigation, and then I decided we had a responsibility to ensure that the mission of the NRA was being carried out according to its own bylaws, as well as those of the state and the U.S. We are seeking the dissolution of the NRA and the barring of four individuals—including executive vice president Wayne LaPierre—from serving in any capacity for the organization, as well as a full accounting of monies that had been donated to [the NRA] that we believe were diverted. When we are able to get restitution, those resources will get redistributed to similar organizations with similar missions.”
One of eight children born to former sharecroppers from Virginia and South Carolina, Tish James has had a career that has been marked by recognizing opportunity, overriding obstacles—and the unexpected. Following the July 2003 murder of New York City councilman James Davis—whose seat Letitia James had unsuccessfully sought in the general election—she was compelled to run again when a mysterious note was slipped under the door of her home, encouraging her to revive her candidacy and replace the slain politician. After winning, she has said, she resolved to live a life grounded in service.