Ralph began his public service career as Chief Counsel to Republican U.S. Senators Edward W. Brooke (1973-1979) and Dave Durenberger (1979-1980). From 1981 through 1995, he served as Executive Director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation's oldest and largest coalition.

During that time, Ralph directed two dozen successful national campaigns that strengthened every major civil rights law, in a political climate not particularly hospitable to civil rights. Landmark laws enacted, with huge bipartisan majorities, included the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988, the 1988 Fair Housing Act Amendments, the Japanese American Civil Liberties Act, and the 1982 Voting Rights Act Extension. Senator Edward Kennedy, in a 1995 Senate floor statement, described Ralph as the "101st Senator for Civil Rights."

In 1987, he chaired the successful bipartisan effort by the 300-organization Block Bork Coalition to defeat (58-42) the confirmation of Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. For his successful efforts, Ralph was named ABC's "Person of the Week."

As President of People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation since 2000, Ralph has increased the members and supporters of People For from 300,000 to more than 700,000. He has been a national leader in the efforts to preserve an independent and fair judiciary and to fight far-right attempts to reverse seven decades of social justice progress. In addition, he has helped put together partnerships and lead coalitions to block a permanent and massive tax cut, to recruit and manage 25,000 volunteers for the non-partisan and nationally recognized Election Protection program (to help ensure every vote counts), to run three nonpartisan PFAWF programs that registered 400,000 African American and Latino voters in 2004, to amend the USA Patriot Act, to defend and reform our nation’s public schools, and to help build a progressive movement and infrastructure across the country.

Ralph is a consistent presence in the national media, interviewed regularly by the major TV, radio and print media, including: ABC's Nightline; CBS Sunday Morning; NBC's Today Show, ABC's This Week; PBS Lehrer News Hour; the nightly news shows of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox; National Public Radio; cable television and radio talk shows; and prominent national, regional and local newspapers. He has been profiled in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Congressional Quarterly and The Baltimore Sun.

He has been honored by organizations representing the spectrum of issues to which he has devoted his career, including the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil Rights Award from LCCR; the Benjamin Hooks "Keeper of the Flame" Award from the national NAACP; the Isaiah Award for the Pursuit of Justice from the American Jewish Committee; the Flag Bearer Award from Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; the Public Service Achievement Award from Common Cause; the Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award from the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund; the Edison Uno Memorial Civil Rights Award from the Japanese-American Citizens' League; the University of Chicago Alumni Public Service Citation; "Citizen of the Year" from the Guillian-Barre Syndrome Foundation International; and the “National Good Guy Award” from the National Women's Political Caucus.

While People For is proud of Ralph’s bipartisan achievements, we take special pride in how relentlessly the right wing attacks him for his effectiveness, especially the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, where he has been personally criticized more than 50 times.

Ralph, a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, earned his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Ralph has taught at the University of Chicago Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. From 1995 through 1999, he was president of The Neas Group. In 1998, Ralph was the Democratic candidate for Congress from Maryland's 8th Congressional District.