U NIVERSITY OF V IRGINIA S CHOOL OF L AW
C ENTER
FOR THE
S TUDY
K IM F ORDE -M AZRUI , DIRECTOR
T IM L OVELACE , A SSISTANT D IRECTOR
OF
R ACE
AND
L AW
A NNUAL R EPORT
2008-2009
T HE C ENTER L AUNCHES “A DVANCED
R ACE AND L AW P ROJECTS ” S EMINAR
C ENTER E XECUTIVE
B OARD
In the fall of 2008, Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui offered a new, year-long seminar at the
Law School, entitled ―Advanced Race and Law Projects.‖ Forde-Mazrui and Assistant
Director, Tim Lovelace, created this innovative course in response to students‘
demands for more race-related course offerings. Accordingly, this seminar aimed to fill
a void in the Law School curriculum by providing students with a substantial, researchbased opportunity to examine a single race and law related topic. Furthermore,
―Advanced Race and Law Projects‖ sought to advance the University‘s efforts to
cultivate an intellectual community in which students actively participate.
Kurt Davis
As a year-long course, students enrolled in ―Advanced Race and Law Projects‖
submitted a project proposal in the late spring and began research and planning related
to their projects during the summer of 2008. Students devised a variety of original
project proposals. Several students proposed strategic partnerships with policymakers
and academicians from other disciplines and sought to develop policy-oriented solutions
to local, state, national, and/or international problems. Other students planned to
collaborate with non-profit organizations to draft manuals and advocacy strategies on a
particular race and law related topic.
Forde-Mazrui remarked, ―The ―Advanced Race and Law Projects‘ seminar was
significant scholarly endeavor, because it helped to diversify the existing law school
curricula while promoting the University‘s effort to produce socially relevant,
interdisciplinary research and scholarship.‖
The course assignments were diverse and designed to create a more welcoming law
school classroom environment. Students wrote political autobiographies to understand
how each Center member developed an interest in studying race in the legal academy
and better situate their classmates‘ projects of social change. Each student also created
a list of scholarly readings related to their project and led a class discussion on the
readings assigned by the student.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
Yemi Abayomi
Shaunik Panse
Tameka Phillips
Nichole Rustin-Paschal
Amy Saltzman
Michael Stark
Ellen Yiadom
C ONTENTS
C OURSE O FFERINGS 1
S TUDENT
R ESEARCH AWARD
4
M ID -A TLANTIC
4
P EOPLE OF C OLOR
L EGAL S CHOLARSHIP
C ONFERENCE
R ESIDENT F ACULTY
S PEAKER S ERIES
5
A DVANCED R ACE
8
AND LAW P ROJECTS
“T HE P ROBLEM OF
P UNISHMENT ”
S YMPOSIUM
16
C ENTER -S UPPORTED 18
E VENTS
From left to right: Yemi Abayomi, Kurt Davis, Shaunik Panse, Tameka Phillips, Nichole RustinPaschal, Amy Saltzman, Mike Stark, Ellen Yiadom
Course offerings
P AGE 2
R ACE AND L AW C OURSE
In the fall semester of 2008, Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui taught a course, entitled ―Race and
Law,‖ which examined the response of law to racial issues in a variety of contemporary legal
contexts. The seminar explored topics including education, employment, criminal justice,
voting, interracial relationships and adoption, and hate speech, and the course materials
consisted of a mix of cases and scholarly commentary. Classes centered on candid discussion
about the issues raised in the assigned materials and the continuing significance of race in the
American legal framework. Students engaged in meaningful scholarly exchanges, examining
whether the law has aided or impeded the cause of civil rights in the past and the extent to
which the law can help to resolve racial issues in the present and future.
The student essays for the fall 2008 seminar are listed below:
Jennifer Beneliyahu, ―Shaping the Affirmative Action Debate: The Extent to which
Affirmative Action Affects Nonminority Applicants and the Relevance of These Effects‖
Brian Chan, ―Conflicts Between Hostile Environment Doctrine and Free Speech and Proposed
Resolutions‖
Kim Forde-Mazrui
Director, Center for the
Study of Race and Law
Michael Chang, ―White Flight Reincarnated: Race-Consciousness and Recent Developments
in Race and Education‖
Kurt Davis, ―Socioeconomic Affirmative Action–Under the Strict Scrutiny Eye of the Court‖
Brittni Goldman, ―Redlining in Commercial and Retail Transactions by Non-Traditional
Lending Institutions‖
Justice Thurgood
Marshall Distinguished
Professor of Law
University of Virginia
School of Law
Amadou Kilkenny-Diaw, ―Interracial Relationships: A Journey Through America‘s Past and Present Racial History‖
Alfred McQueen, ―Colorism: The Effects of Skin Color in Sentencing and Employment Discrimination‖
Linda Otaigbe, ―Establishing a More Equitable Drug Policy‖
Shaunik Panse,―Disenfranchisement in the Commonwealth: Challenging Virginia‘s Felon Disenfranchisement Laws under
the Voting Rights Act‖
Tameka Phillips, ―Hate Speech in Public Schools: A Victim-Centric Framework‖
Nichole Rustin-Paschal, ―Race, Dignitary Rights, and the Law‖
Amy Saltzman, ―Jury Trials for Juveniles: A Remedy for the Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System?‖
Courtney Schmidt, ―Rethinking Colorblindness: Why Race Must Continue to Be a Factor in Transracial Adoptions‖
Phillip Storey, ―Racial Profiling, Equal Protection, and the Local Enforcement of Immigration Law‖
Ellen Yiadom, ―Fatherless Child: How Child Support Policies under PRWORA Negatively Impact the Lives of Low-Income
Black Fathers and Their Families‖
Ian Zack,―Racial Profiling at Traffic Stops: An Extrajudicial Proposal in Response to Discriminatory Police Practices‖
Course offerings
P AGE 3
R ACE AND L AW S HORT C OURSE
In the fall semester of 2008, Professor Guy Charles, the Russell M. and Elizabeth M. Bennett
Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School taught a two-week course at the
Law School, entitled, ―Critical Race Theory: Problems in Anti-Discrimination Law.‖ The course
explored the deep interconnections between race and law, and particularly the ways in which
race and law are mutually constitutive, by exploring the emerging themes within critical race
theory. The course also examined some of the questions and criticisms raised about critical race
theory, from both inside and outside of the genre, as well as the impact of the work on legal and
political discourse. The point of departure for the course was an exploration of the definition of
race itself and the role law plays in constructing this identity. Finally, the course considered the
extent to which critical race theory can be employed to address various problems in antidiscrimination law.
Guy Charles
A DVANCED R ACE AND L AW P ROJECTS (continued from page 1)
Forde-Mazrui and Lovelace assigned a chief critic and chief advocate to each student project. In turn, the chief critic and
chief advocate debated the structure and theoretical underpinnings of each project and delivered several pages of
commentary to the presenter to refine the project. Each class meeting ended with a discussion of how the student project
fit within the selected readings, contemporary policy debates, and other race and law scholarship.
Mike Stark, a third year student in ―Advanced Race and Law Projects commented, ―I really enjoyed the classroom debates.
All of the students in the class were really approachable and collegial, and the classroom dynamic created a space where we
could not only praise one another for wrestling with important legal issues, but also offer each other valuable constructive
criticism.‖
Moreover, throughout the school year, each student presented his or her project to a University audience. The
presentations explored the theoretical and practical implications of the student‘s original research and varied in format—
ranging from lecturers to panel discussions and policy-oriented debates. The students in the course observed each
presentation and provided written reflections on their classmates‘ presentations.
Finally, each student submitted a substantial research paper that incorporated interdisciplinary research, situated the project
within the context of contemporary legal scholarship and jurisprudence, and offered policy-oriented recommendations to
address the pressing issue the project identified.
Lovelace concluded, ―Race and law scholars have introduced a host of new pedagogical practices into the legal academy, and
‗Advanced Race and Law Projects‘ reflects a shift in the field, as students in the course learned how they might apply legal
theory to real-world problems. I am confident that students will leave the seminar with a deeper commitment to social
change and a better understanding of how scholarship might inform future law reform.‖
Promoting New Scholarship
P AGE 4
R ACE AND L AW S TUDENT R ESEARCH A WARD
Ellen Yiadom, a second year law student and a graduate of Harvard University, was
selected as the 2008-2009 Center for the Study of Race and Law Student Research Award
winner. The Student Research Award was introduced in 2005 and grants $1,000 to a
Virginia law student for producing a cutting-edge, race-related research project.
Yiadom‘s ambitious project explored the employment crisis among African-American
men both nationally and locally. Despite the advances in racial justice over the last half
century and the election of the first African-American President, African-American men
continue to be employed at rates significantly lower than their white counterparts. Yiadom‘s research showed that although there have been increases in male
unemployment nationally between 1950 and 1990, there have been significant increases in
unemployment among African-American men during this period. African-American male
unemployment increased from 9.5 percent in 1950 to 21 percent in 1990. In 2000, 65
Ellen Yiadom
percent of black men in their twenties, without high school degrees, were jobless. By
2004 this number had increased to 72 percent compared with 34 percent of white high
school dropouts. Yiadom maintained, ―Not surprisingly, in the local economy, the unemployment crisis has had a disparate
impact on African-American men.‖ In June of 2008, although only 22 percent of the Charlottesville population was
African-American, 57 percent of the 279 Charlottesville residents who received unemployment insurance were AfricanAmerican. Yiadom‘s research also demonstrated that local African-American men suffered from disproportionate rates of
unemployment.
Yiadom authored a manual for local non-profit organizations that examined how municipalities from across the country
have successfully combated the high rates of unemployment among African-American men. Yiadom‘s manual, which
relied on her analysis of best practices in fighting unemployment, subsequently offered several recommendations for the
City of Charlottesville aimed at creating new economic opportunities for city‘s African-American men.
T HE C ENTER TO H OST 2010 C ONFERENCE ON THE 50 TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE S IT -I N M OVEMENT
Julian Bond during a protest of the
Vietnam War
The Center for the Study of Race and Law will serve as the host for the 2010
Mid-Atlantic People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference (MAPOC).
MAPOC provides law faculty of color the opportunity to share ideas for
scholarly projects, workshop works-in-progress, mentor junior faculty
members, and discuss critical and timely topics. The 2010 conference,
entitled ―50 Years After the Sit-Ins,‖ will commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the sit-in movement, and
panelists will explore how civil rights
activists, as well as activists from other
twentieth century social movements,
have informed domestic and international
law reform. Articles from the conference
will be published in the Virginia Journal of
Social Policy and Law.
MAPOC will be held at the Law School on Friday, January 29 and Saturday, January
30, 2010. The keynote speakers for this momentous occasion will be Julian Bond,
Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the
former Communications Director of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), and Reverend Charles Sherrod, Albany State University professor of political
science and former SNCC Field Secretary.
Charles Sherrod (left)
with activist Carl Braden
Resident Faculty Speaker Series
P AGE 5
JOHNSON DEFENDS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN LAW SCHOOL RECRUITING
August 28, 2008
Ending affirmative action in recruiting students to U.S. law schools would come at an unacceptable cost, said Law School
professor Alex Johnson at a resident faculty speaker series event sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law.
The ―alteration of current education policy might well undo several decades
of progress in the diversification of law schools and subsequently at the bar,‖
said Johnson, a former chair of the Board of Trustees of the Law School
Admissions Council, the organization that produces and administers the LSAT
nationwide.
Johnson‘s talk responded to a 2005 Stanford Law Review article by UCLA
law professor Richard Sander, ―A Systematic Analysis of Affirmative Action in
American Law Schools.‖ In the article, Sander argued that affirmative action
in practice leads to fewer black lawyers.
Alex Johnson
Perre Bowen Professor of Law
Thomas F. Bergin Professor of Law
University of Virginia School of Law
―Sander‘s basic premise is: If we really prize diversity and we really want a
diverse bar we would do better without affirmative action,‖ Johnson said.
Because black students with the best LSAT scores are recruited by top-tier
law schools, less-qualified black law school candidates are recruited by
middle-tier schools and so on, creating a ―cascade effect,‖ Sander argued.
According to Sander‘s article, when students are admitted to a law school
more academically rigorous than they are numerically qualified for, they
experience lower grades and lower bar passage rates.
Johnson acknowledged that African-Americans on average score lower on the LSAT and are somewhat less likely to pass
the bar. For the class matriculating in 1991 and graduating in 1994, the same period as Sander‘s data set, the bar passage
rate differential between African-American and other test takers was 19 percent.
But Johnson found in his own research that the bar passage rates of African-Americans who achieve above the mean LSAT
score is almost identical to those of whites. ―Those students at the top, going to the elite schools, aren‘t flunking the bar.
And they are all going to become lawyers,‖ Johnson said.
Sander claimed that dismantling affirmative action in elite law schools would result in an additional 150 to 169 more black
lawyers. But ―those [additional] lawyers we would have would not be the lawyers from the top schools,‖ Johnson said, and
would not have the same high-quality legal education. The real issue, Johnson said, ―is whether the absence of students of
color from our most selective and prestigious law schools is an acceptable cost to incur in order to prove what may be a
flawed hypothesis.‖
Resident Faculty Speaker Series
P AGE 6
G UY C HARLES D ISCUSSES 2008 P RESIDENTIAL E LECTION
November 20, 2008
The election of the country‘s first black president could have dramatic implications for the identity of African Americans,
visiting Law School professor Guy-Uriel Charles said at a lunchtime event hosted by the Center for the Study of Race and
Law.
Charles, the Russell M. and Elizabeth M. Bennett Professor of Law at the University
of Minnesota Law School, said Barack Obama‘s victory could lead African Americans
to form an even stronger and more cohesive racial identity, or could cause the group
to faction into units that identify around commonalities like socioeconomic status
instead of race.
Charles said Obama owes many of his votes to people of color, including blacks,
Asians and Latinos. He cited exit polls that showed that 43 percent of whites voted
for Obama, while 95 percent of blacks, 67 percent of Latinos, and 62 percent of
Asians supported him. ―Obama‘s presidency was not the result of the fact that a
majority of whites voted for him, but the fact that a coalition of voters of color [cast
their vote] in a lot of respects around this issue of racial consciousness,‖ Charles said.
Race and Law short course
professor, Guy Charles,
explores the meaning of
race in an Obama America
Charles used the term ―linked fate‖ to describe African Americans‘ tendency to choose
candidates by considering what would be the best for a group, rather than what is best for the individual. That group
consciousness, Charles said, could be challenged by Obama‘s election. Suddenly, he said, a group of Americans who always
felt a sense of ―otherness,‖ are now capable of not just following, but of leading.
―With the election of Barack Obama, the question becomes, ‗Does [Barack Obama‘s election] symbolize the full inclusion
of black Americans into American society?‘ If you think through Aristotle and Plato‘s conception of citizenship, one
conception of what it means to be a full and equal citizen is not simply someone who is ruled, but someone who is capable
of being a ruler,‖ Charles said. Now that Obama has tread into new territory, Charles said African Americans may not feel
as much of a need to band together as part of a larger racial group.
Conversely, Charles said it‘s possible for African Americans to form an even stronger racial identity because of Obama‘s
election, especially if the group does not feel it is reaping benefits from his presidency.
Charles said rampant inequalities are still evident when African Americans are compared with whites, and many African
Americans will expect Obama to address those inequalities. ―So if there isn‘t any public policy directed at addressing those
issues and those problems … it might be the case that African Americans say, ‗Wait a minute. We‘ve seen no benefits from
this process,‘ and instead of seeing a decrease in group identity, you might see an increase in the group identity that is
focused on the existing, if not growing, racial inequality across all spectrums,‖ he said.
This can be exacerbated, Charles said, by some white Americans‘ perception that Obama‘s election proves that racial
inequality no longer exists. ―I‘ve talked to a number of white American friends where people have said statements like,
‗I‘m voting for Obama in part because I want to take the race issue off the table. No longer is this question of white racial
guilt and black racial grievance a legitimate question to be addressed,‘‖ Charles said. ―If this is true that it‘s viewed as taking
the racial issue off the table, and you have significant racial inequality that black Americans find intolerable, then you have
the possibility of further conflict that might result in greater racial identity or further racial separateness.‖
Resident Faculty Speaker Series
P AGE 7
C HARLES A DDRESSES F ACULTY W ORKSHOP
November 21, 2008
During a weekly faculty workshop, Race and Law short course professor, Guy-Uriel Charles, discussed his paper, ―The
Voting Rights Act and Noisy Statutory Interpretation‖ (co-authored with Luis Fuentes-Rohwer). The United States
Congress recently renewed one of the most successful statutory provisions
ever enacted and part of one of the most, if not the most, revered statutes
in American history: section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).
Moreover, an overwhelmingly bipartisan Congress passed the Fannie Lou
Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act
Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (Renewal Act), and
Republican President George W. Bush promptly signed the Renewal Act.
Guy Charles during a Law School
faculty workshop
According to Charles, ―Ordinarily, this would all be a cause for rejoicing,
but such a reaction would be misguided. Unlike passage of the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, which gave rise to the original section 5, this voting
rights statute is high on symbolic politics and low on substance.‖ Charles
asserted that Congress failed to provide crucial guidance on the Renewal
Act‘s signature accomplishment, failed to modernize the Act, and failed to
respond to the pressing voting rights issues of the 21st century.
Most pertinently, Charles argued, Congress apparently assumed that the Supreme Court will resolve pressing voting rights
questions because the Court has done so in the past. Ever since the enactment of the VRA the Court, Congress, and for a
long time the Department of Justice, have roughly behaved as partners in giving effect to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth
Amendments through their respective construction of the VRA. ―Admittedly, this has not always been a harmonious
relationship,‖ Charles explained. Sometimes the Court has constrained Congress‘ interpretation of the Act and sometimes
Congress has constrained the Court‘s interpretation. But oftentimes, the relationship has been symbiotic. Sometimes the
Court has borrowed from Congress to interpret the Act and sometimes Congress has borrowed from the Court to amend
the Act. The statutory scheme we recognize as the Voting Rights Act is the joint construction of, the product of a dialogue between, the Court and Congress. Charles called this process the ―cooperative dialogic synthesis.‖
However, Professor Charles declared that the cooperative dialogic synthesis in voting rights law has its costs. For Charles,
it encourages shirking by Congress, it diminishes political accountability, it minimizes transparency, and it is inefficient
where Congress is more institutional competent to make policy decisions than courts.
Thus, courts are justified in not cooperating with Congress, according to Charles, when delegation subverts important
democratic and political process values, such as transparency, political accountability, and comparative institutional
competence. Charles maintained that when implied delegation in voting rights subverts democratic values courts should
defect by engaging in what he called ―‗noisy statutory interpretation‘—an interpretation of the VRA that would send a
signal to the political process, in particular to relevant interest groups and to Congress, of the Court‘s intent not to
cooperate with the delegation.‖ Charles continued, ―The Court‘s statutory interpretation is noisy where the Court adopts
an interpretation that is inconsistent with the interpretation that the interest groups most affected by the statute would
prefer.‖
―Our normative argument is that courts should engage in noisy statutory interpretation when Congress delegates
fundamental policy determinations in the voting rights context not because Congress believes that courts are better able to
decide those questions but because Congress wants to minimize its political accountability and reduce legislative
transparency,‖ Charles concluded.
Advanced Race and Law Projects
P AGE 8
T HE P OLITICS OF R ACE , A POLOGIES , AND H OUSE R ESOLUTION 40
November 12, 2008
The Center and the Black Law Student Association hosted a panel that reflected upon the prospects for race-based
legislation in a post-Obama political environment. Two House legislative staffers visited the Law School to speak about
their experience at the intersection of racial politics and legislation.
Keenan Keller, Senior Democratic Counsel for the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States House of
Representatives, and James Park, Legislative Counsel to Rep. Steve Cohen (TN-9), shared their views on race,
legislation, and politics.
In response to Bill Clinton‘s 1997 call for a national dialogue on race, Steve Cohen (then a Tennessee State Senator)
wrote a letter to the President asking him to issue a national apology for slavery. Cohen never received a response. Upon
his election to the House in 2007, Congressman Cohen decided to press the issue. He hired Park, a 2001 graduate of
Vanderbilt University Law School, and asked him to draft a legislative apology for slavery. On July 29, 2008 H.R. 194,
the first federal apology for slavery, passed the House of Representatives.
Keller, a Yale Law School graduate, is responsible for one of John Conyers‘ signature bills, The
Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. Conyers first introduced the
bill, more commonly spoken of as HR-40 (after General Sherman‘s promise of ―40 acres and a
mule‖), in 1989 after the United States passed legislation that authorized reparations to JapaneseAmericans that had been interred in the WWII era.
Keenan Keller
HR-40 has never passed, but Keller says that fact should not be mistaken for failure. Indeed,
according to Keller, HR-40 has ―move[d] the ball forward with respect to the discussion about
slavery and Jim Crow.‖ For example, every time HR-40 is debated, its advocates are presented
with a new opportunity to deflate the pernicious myth that the Civil War was fought to free the
slaves.
Additionally, because passage of HR-40 would require a study of slavery‘s legacy, the debate is useful in defusing antireparation arguments that rely upon the fact that there are no living former slaves or slaveholders. By expanding the
debate to include Jim Crow, HR-40 sets a context in which the nation cannot escape its full responsibility for officially
sanctioned racial injustices.
So why was the apology passed? Why has HR-40 run into such a head wind? It turns out that the apology was passed late
in the evening without a recorded vote. According to Keller, Republican legislators were, ―…afraid to death of having to
come in and have a recorded vote on it.‖ In contrast, by its very nature, HR-40 would force a Congressional discussion of
America‘s uncomfortable acquaintance with racism.
―The issue is not on the merits…‖ Keller explained, ―the issue is really going to be the political atmospherics… [Certain
legislators] would rather do anything than have a discussion that highlights the fact that our sacred founding document is
tainted…‖ Park added, ―Just the mere fact of introducing the apology stirred up a hornet‘s nest.‖
Are we living in a post-racial world, at least with regard to legislation? Keller says no. ―Unless you actually confront the
reality with which you are faced, you can‘t put fair policies in place.‖ Have our politics evolved to a post-racial state?
Again, no. Keller points to the fact that changes in the electoral map – particularly in Virginia and North Carolina –
could be traced to a reverse-migration of African-Americans into those states. Furthermore, generally speaking, Hillary
Clinton won the Democratic almost all of the primaries in what ultimately became the blue states; it was only through a
quirk in the Democratic Party‘s delegate allocation formula that Barack Obama became the party‘s standard-bearer.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
Advanced race and Law Projects
P AGE 9
M ARRIAGE AS A P OLICY I NITIATIVE : R EDUCING P OVERTY AND
S TRENGTHENING M INORITY C OMMUNITIES
November 20, 2008
In front of a crowd of students and faculty in Caplin Pavilion, a panel of Law
School professors and a judge offered their opinions to the debate centered on
whether marriage as a public policy initiative has the potential for reducing
poverty and strengthening minority communities.
In moderating the discussion between Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice
Leah Sears and Standard Law Professor Richard Banks, University of Virginia
Law Professor Kerry Abrams began by introducing the statistics surrounding
the growing disparity in the marriage market and consequently marriage rates
for minorities as compared to whites.
Justice Sears, as a member of the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on
Children, Marriage and Family Law, emphasized the growing gap – financially,
emotionally, and socially – between those children who have married parents
and those children who do not.
Justice Leah Sears
Justice Sears discussed how she has seen the amount of children born out of
wedlock grow astronomically within the past sixteen years while she has been on
the Georgia Supreme Court. Accordingly, Justice Sears stressed the growing
amount of criminal cases, divorces, and child custody cases within the Georgia
court system and beyond. As Justice Sears underlined, the national decline of the
American family and consequently the rise of fragmented and disorderly families
is a prime factor in this growing problem of court cases for court systems
throughout the country.
Richard Banks
Justice Sears furthermore articulated an ideology that accepted good and healthy
marriages as the best crime prevention, anti-poverty and wealth – financially and
social –building, and crime prevention program available to society and public
policy.
Professor Banks responded to commentators‘ usual characterization of the
marriage gap as a lack of marriageable black men, as a result, in large part, of the
growing incarceration rates of blacks and other extenuating outcomes resulting
from incarceration of blacks. Professor Banks argued that a more salient
influence on black marriage rates is the commitment of black women, far beyond
that of any other group, to marrying their race and creating the ―strong black
family.‖
―The black community would be well served if more black women married nonblack men,‖ Professor Banks stated. Despite the uncomfortable nature of
interracial relationships for the public – in particular black women with nonKerry Abrams
black men – Professor Banks has noticed a growing opportunity for interracial
marriage but perceives the racial solidarity as, ironically, thwarting the formation
of stable families for black women and their children and accordingly impeding racial progress.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 10
Advanced race and Law Projects
P AGE 10
THE POLITICS OF RACE... (continued from page 8)
With that conceded, the panelists were optimistic that racial inequalities will be reduced under an Obama presidency
because a progressive President will allow for more opportunity to pass the legislation required to address racial
inequities. Keller explained, ―The fact that President-elect Obama is where he is allows us to be very hopeful about all of
this. Forget about Obama‘s color. The fact of the matter is that we have never, ever elected a Democrat from the
progressive wing of our party to the White House… That is the most historic thing we can look at… The whole idea of
getting a progressive into the White House makes our job much more straight-forward than it has ever been in [Conyers‘]
40 years in Congress.‖
M ARRIAGE AS A P OLICY I NITIATIVE (continued from page 9)
In discussing the billboards sponsored throughout Georgia not by a
church or family-values group but by the Supreme Court of
Georgia through its Commission on Children, Marriage and Family
Law, Professor Abrams asked the question if whether more
aggressive and, in essence, radical efforts needed to be taken.
While billboards – stating slogans that raise from ―Get Married,
Stay Married‖ to ―Children do better with parents together‖ – can
raise awareness, they do not exactly answer complaints of many
commentators.
Considering the high incarceration rates of black men and the
Panelists field questions during a February 11
overall divorce rate, Professor Abrams implored the crowd and the
Center event
speakers to consider whether more relaxed drug laws on the
federal level or incentive-driven premarital marriage counseling
(through fee discounts for marriage licenses) could more directly confront the troubles of black women and society as an
entirety in increasing marriage rates.
While many black women worry about their prospects for marriage, it is necessary that black women know that if they
want to get married, they will get married, Justice Sears said ―directly to black women‖ at the event.
In conclusion, Professor Banks discussed the value in the investment and commitment between two people in a marriage
that cannot be engendered in a simple relationship or situation where people are just casually dating. The investment and
commitment garners larger income for couples, better academically and socially performing students, and an enhanced
health picture throughout life.
Advanced race and Law Projects
P AGE 11
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, PRESERVATION, AND AFRICAN-AMERICANS
February 25, 2009
The Center for the Study of Race and Law convened a distinguished evening panel, which explored the topic of community
development, historic preservation, and cultural memory in African-American communities. David
Tipson, from the Lawyers‘ Committee on Civil Rights Under Law, Professor Craig Barton, Chair,
U.Va. Department of Architecture, and David Bearinger, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities drew
on their experiences working with various African-American communities for an audience of students
and faculty members from across the University.
David Tipson, who received a law degree and a master‘s degree in Urban & Environment Planning in
2003, discussed his work as a Staff Attorney with the Community Development Project at the Lawyers‘
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Tipson opened his presentation with a discussion of competing
David Tipson
narratives about the demolition of Mt. Cavalry Baptist Church in Ivy, VA. There is the dominant
narrative of historic preservationists that the building should be preserved principally because they
perceive commitment as being to the building. On the other hand, the African-Americans who are Mt.
Cavalry‘s congregationists, perceive of their relationship as to the place itself—they have a continuous relationship to the
historic site. Tipson believes that we should increasingly focus on understanding how to help communities retain their
commitment to place rather than only the buildings. The standard regulatory approach does not
work within all communities at all times. ―Historical meaning plays an active role in the daily lives of
people I work with,‖ Tipson said.
Tipson also argued for seeing clouded and fractionated title to land as a civil rights issue. Heir‘s
Property, Tipson explained, results often in land loss for African-Americans because the title to the
land has been passed down through intestacy and ownership is thereby divided by fractions to eligible
landowners who often do not live on or make use of the property itself. Partition sales lead to land
loss because fractionated ownership inhibits borrowing from private lenders and government
programs, and underutilization of the property. The severity of the issue, particularly for AfricanCraig Barton
American farmers, has led the US Department of Agriculture‘s Rural Development office to create a
funding stream to develop pilot programs addressing the issue. One solution is for heirs to form
LLCs—if any one heir wants to sell his interest in the land, then he must sell to another shareholder or the company
itself. This allows the property to remain intact and for heirs to maximize the value of the property.
Professor Craig Barton, who chairs the Department of Architecture and is a practicing architect, discussed some of the
projects which he has worked on, including an installation at Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, the design of a museum
and visitors‘ center in Selma, AL for the National Voting Rights Museum, and the adaptive re-use of former Rosenwald
Schools in Rappahannock County, VA and Emporia, VA.
Barton argued for thinking of memory as a trope for historic preservation and practice. He sees landscape as a cultural
artifact and it is the designer‘s challenge to make the history of those spaces visible. Design often
places and programs people in space. Barton explored how the architectural plan of Monticello
rendered the slaves, who were key to its functioning, invisible by placing their quarters below
grade. The view from Jefferson‘s porch was unobstructed by evidence of his slaves.
David Bearinger
In his discussion of his work with the planned National Voting Rights Museum and the Scrabble
School, Barton emphasized the need to design architecture in such a way that people have to engage
it—it must be something that people are drawn into physically, mentally, and emotionally. Barton
asserted that architects should also receive feedback from the African American communities
surrounding particular sites in thinking through the use and design of spaces which are situated in
their communities. Peoples‘ historical relationship to space should be a part of the planning process.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
Advanced race and Law Projects
P AGE 12
REPRESENTING CHILDREN: DEALING WITH RACIAL INEQUALITIES IN
SCHOOLS, FOSTER CARE, AND IN THE JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM
March 11, 2009
After 34 years with the country‘s oldest public interest law firm for children,
Robert Schwartz has learned to litigate through relationships and find creative
ways to influence his field, he told students last week.
The Center for the Study of Race and Law hosted Schwartz, co-founder and
executive director of Philadelphia‘s Juvenile Law Center. In the organization‘s
first years, its attorneys shared space with a doctor‘s office and accepted any
work they were offered, he said. ―I was a sports official and did baseball and
basketball,‖ Schwartz said. ―I called it ‗arbitration‘ on my resume.‖
Decades later, the firm is thriving and has made payroll every year since
1982. The attorneys have narrowed their focus to the most vulnerable
children, often those involved in the foster care, child welfare, juvenile justice
and criminal justice systems. And race plays a strong role in much of the firm‘s
work, he said. ―Needless to say, given the coercive involuntary systems with
which we deal with foster care and juvenile justice, race matters and has always
been a backdrop of our work,‖ he said.
Robert Schwartz
Schwartz talked about the role of discretion in children‘s legal issues, saying the true challenge is in finding ways to
structure discretion without eliminating it. ―Much of the work of being a lawyer for kids is trying to change the way
discretion is used so that kids are in the most benign, least harmful setting and a situation in which they have the greatest
opportunities,‖ he said. ―In our world, every day, decision-makers define children coming out of public systems and in the
process, put some in the juvenile justice system, putting others in different child service systems.‖
He said the system labels children either ―bad,‖ ―mad,‖ ―sad‖ and ―can‘t add,‖ and sorts them into either juvenile justice,
child welfare, mental health or special education systems. How children are sorted for similar crimes is affected by the
traits and conduct of either the children or their parents, he said. Specifically, children and their parents are classified
based on their race and class.
People in power have the option to exercise discretion when making decisions about the futures of these children, he said,
and that is where having a positive impact on the use of discretion is beneficial. Usually, it‘s best for children to stay out of
juvenile detention, and to stay at home with their families.
The Juvenile Law Center has a wider reach than simply helping individual children. Schwartz said they also aim to
influence systems locally and state-wide with committee work, and by networking and promoting positive change within
bar associations. Conducting studies, writing articles and speaking to students at law schools are other ways the Juvenile
Law Center‘s attorneys expand their reach and influence. Building respectful personal relationships, he said, is often more
helpful than any other action.
―We learned how to litigate through relationships. There are a lot of things you can do when you know the chief inspector
in charge of the juvenile division of the Philadelphia police department that you could do with a phone call and a little
respect that solves problems easier than a press conference or a complaint,‖ he said. ―The fact that we‘re in the position to
litigate meant that our phone calls were taken and the problem was solved without litigation.‖
Schwartz told the students that even 34 years of advocating for children has not prepared him for some of the situations
with which he‘s regularly presented. However, he said, by being prepared, working hard and building relationships, the
students will be ready as possible when opportunity knocks.
Advanced race and Law Projects
P AGE 13
RACE, EMPLOYMENT, AND THE CHARLOTTESVILLE COMMUNITY
March 25, 2009
The Center for the Study of Race and Law welcomed Karen Waters, executive director of
the Quality Community Council and Michael Harvey, president of the Thomas Jefferson
Partnership for Economic Development, for an evening panel discussion. Both panelists
highlighted an alarming local reality. Though Charlottesville has a lower unemployment
rate than the national average, there is chronic unemployment and underemployment
among its African-American residents and specifically among its African-American male
population.
Waters‘ presentation focused on the racial history of Charlottesville and how that
precipitated the disparities in employment between African-American and white residents
of the city. Waters provided three reasons for the unemployment crisis among AfricanAmericans in Charlottesville: urban renewal, massive resistance, and the War on Drugs.
She explored the history of Vinegar Hill, a once thriving African-American neighborhood
in Charlottesville with a vibrant black business community. However, during urban
renewal, the city razed Vinegar Hill. Although local residents were initially told that they
would be able to move back to the site after it was developed, city officials never fulfilled
the promise. Former Vinegar Hill residents, Waters explained, were then moved to a
housing project nearby, and many of them still live there today.
Michael Harvey
For Ms. Waters, school desegregation also led to reduced educational benefits for black
children in Charlottesville. The segregated African-American and white high schools in
Charlottesville were merged into one high school—Charlottesville High School—after the
city ended its resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court‘s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.
Waters maintained, ―Desegregation of the local high school system helped to lead to an
academic tracking system that has negatively affected African-American children.‖
Finally, Waters discussed how increased police enforcement in the 1980s, as part of the
War on Drugs, decreased the employment opportunities offered to young AfricanAmerican males. Local employers and particularly the University of Virginia—the largest
employer in the region—remain very reluctant to hire individuals with criminal records,
Waters said. She challenged the University to change its hiring policies to end racial
disparities in employment in the Charlottesville community.
Michael Harvey began his discussion of African-American employment by presenting an
array of slides showing growth of local jobs in certain sectors and the decline in local jobs in
other sectors. The trend, according to Harvey, shows that there is an increasing demand
for jobs that require more than a high school diploma, while jobs that do not require a high
school diploma are quickly shrinking. Despite the need for employees with more advanced
degrees, almost 40 percent of African-American men in Charlottesville do not have a high
school diploma. After providing an overview of the local employment trends, Harvey
suggested various solutions to tackle the unemployment crisis in black Charlottesville.
Harvey argued that the city should improve educational opportunities and provide a better
fit between social service programs and jobs in growing economic sectors to end the racial
disparities in employment.
After the panelists‘ presentations, the floor was open to questions. Many of the audience
members were long-time residents of Charlottesville and offered great insight into many of
the topics the speakers discussed. Charlottesville Councilwoman Holly Edwards was also
in attendance and was engaged in a robust discussion with Harvey and Waters about how
Council might improve economic equity in the city.
Karen Waters
Advanced race and Law Projects
P AGE 14
PROSECUTING HATE: DEVELOPING AN EFFECTIVE AND FAIR APPROACH
TO HATE CRIMES
April 1, 2009
Mark Kappelhoff, chief of the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department‘s
Civil Rights Division, discussed the current state of federal and state hate crimes
prosecutions a talk sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law. ―You
may think, ‗Why do we have to prosecute hate crimes in the United States? Is it a
problem?‘ Well, the answer is yes,‖ Kappelhoff said. ―In 2007, there were over 7,600
hate crimes in the United States. That turns out to be about one instance per hour for
the entire year. And that number has been very consistent for the last decade.‖
Kappelhoff stated the actual number of hate crimes may be far larger than what is
reported because some victims fail to report their crimes, and sometimes hate crimes
are mislabeled as ―vandalism‖ or ―a prank‖ by law enforcement authorities. Examples
of underreporting can be found in Mississippi, which reported no hate crimes to the
FBI in 2007, and Alabama, which reported only six, Kappelhoff said.
Mark Kappelhoff
He also said his office sees spikes in hate crimes based on what‘s going on in the news. There was an explosion of crimes
against Muslim Americans after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and a small spike of crimes targeted toward AfricanAmericans during the recent presidential election.
Kappelhoff discussed the most difficult element of prosecuting those who commit hate crimes — meeting all three
qualifications required to classify crime as hate crime. In addition to showing that there was force or threat of force,
prosecutors must also show that the force was motivated by bias and an intent to interfere with a federally protected
activity. Those activities, he said, include the right to housing, education, employment, public accommodation, serving as a
juror or voting.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
YES WE CAN? RACE, POVERTY, AND PROGRESS IN AMERICA
April 15, 2009
Stephen Black
Dan Nagin
The Center for the Study of Race and Law hosted Stephen Black, founder of Impact Alabama, and
Virginia law professor Dan Nagin to examine current issues facing people living at the intersection of
poverty and racial discrimination. Impact Alabama is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote
civic engagement, and Black asserted that his experiences with Impact Alabama have shown him that
the lack of civic engagement is largely caused by the same ideology that spurs suburbanization. As
more privileged Americans have aspired for the American dream, Black reasoned, they have become
increasingly removed from the experiences of people unlike themselves. Consequently, for Black,
many Americans in the position to address the social ills caused by racialized poverty have instead
abandoned all sense of civic engagement, because suburbanites no longer have to tackle the problems
of those not living in their jurisdiction.
So, what is the solution? Black believes strongly that a social justice education is crucial to restoring
Americans‘ commitments to civic responsibility and public service. As the nephew of civil rights
activist Virginia Durr and grandson of former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Black urged the
audience to consider the lives of socially-minded individuals who changed the American legal and
political landscapes during the twentieth century. Through such a renewed commitment to social
justice, Black maintained, law students will not only transform the legal profession, but also help to
spark systemic change throughout the country and world.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 15
Race , law, & Human Rights Series
P AGE 15
C OMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ... (continued from page 11)
David Bearinger, Director of Grants and Public Programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, discussed the
African-American Heritage Program which began in 2000 as a partnership with the Virginia Tourism Commission. The
program promotes historic preservation through local knowledge, documents historic places, even if the structures are no
longer there, funds exhibits and lectures, and sponsors teacher institutes. Bearinger explained that while the VFH does not
fund actual preservation work, it does fund work that either helps local communities decide what artifacts it might
memorialize or produces different types of research materials that will aid preservation efforts. These efforts, Bearinger
noted, have been critical to a network of African-American museums in the state the VFH supports.
The panel fielded questions ranging from requests for greater understanding of how lawyers could engage these issues to
exploring other elements of how historic preservation has an impact on how communities are sustained.
P ROSECUTING H ATE (continued from page 14)
He discussed several cases his office has prosecuted, including United States v. Eye and Sandstrom, for which two men were
found guilty of shooting and killing an African-American man walking on the street in Kansas City. Kappelhoff‘s office was
successful in the case, he said, because they were able to prove that the man was attacked because of his race and because
he was using a public street, which is a federally protected activity because it is a public accommodation.
In another case, United States v. Walker, members of the National Alliance, a white separatist political organization, were
convicted of assaulting a Mexican-American bartender at his place of employment in Salt Lake City. The prosecution was
successful, Kappelhoff said, because prosecutors were able to prove that the bartender was assaulted because of his race and
in an effort to interfere with his federally protected right to employment.
Kappelhoff also discussed a proposed hate crime statute called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of
2009. If passed, Kappelhoff said it will make two key improvements to hate crime law by expanding the groups protected
to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identification and disability. It also eliminates the requirement that
prosecutors prove that a hate crime was motivated by the victim‘s participation in federally protected activities.
He lastly discussed prevention, which he said should be a major element of addressing hate crime, along with prosecution
and providing victim services. ―Unfortunately by the time a case comes to me or my office, there‘s already a victim out
there — someone who has been killed or beaten or threatened,‖ he said. ―Prosecution isn‘t the answer. We need other
ways to address hate. Prevention is the answer. Just talking about race is a serious step toward prevention.‖
Y ES WE C AN ? (continued from page 14)
Virginia law professor Dan Nagin highlighted the changing face of welfare due to the current economic downturn. Nagin
asserted that welfare in the popular imagination has been historically linked to the image of African-Americans, and
accordingly, though whites receive welfare in greater numbers than African-Americans, racism has played a key role in the
stigmatization of welfare policy. Yet, for Nagin, the current recession has slightly altered contemporary discussions of
welfare. Nagin declared that contemporary debates on welfare policy are less filled with stereotypes of African-American
―welfare queens‖ or rhetoric of laziness. Rather, these debates are increasingly grounded in shock and empathy because of
increased white need for welfare—a more socially acceptable need according to much of society. Professor Nagin does not
see this shift as entirely negative, however. He contended that the new, more culturally acceptable images of welfare may
actually benefit impoverished African-Americans. Nagin was hopeful that such a shift in the cultural imagination may
broaden support for welfare programs over the long run.
Both panelists agreed that that lawyers are critical to fighting the growing wealth gap in America and emphasized the need
for law schools to better prepare students to become active agents for social change.
“The Problem of punishment” Symposium
P AGE 16
S CHOLAR - ACTIVIST A NGELA D AVIS CALLS FOR THE ABOLITION
OF THE U.S. P RISON S YSTEM
April 16-17, 2009
On April 16, activist and retired University of California professor, Angela Davis, delivered the keynote address for the
Carter G. Woodson Institute‘s conference, ―The Problem with Punishment: Race, Inequality and Justice,‖ on the
University‘s Central Grounds. The Center for the Study of Race and Law co-sponsored for this two-day conference.
The idea of the penitentiary emerged at the same time
as the American Revolution, and like the Revolution,
U.Va founder, Thomas Jefferson helped to pioneer this
movement with profound implications for
contemporary American life. Davis asserted that the
American prison system has proven a failed experiment
in democracy and an institution of racial injustice when
one in 100 Americans is behind bars and half of them
are black.
Davis called for a new movement to abolish what she
called ―the prison-industrial complex‖ in the U.S.,
which has become the largest jailer in the world.
Violent people should be dealt with, she said, in the
context of the reasons behind the violence and how it is
perpetuated. ―Simply dumping these people in prison
Angela Davis
only has the tendency to reproduce more violence,‖ she
said. The American-style penitentiary system is
spreading internationally and having a devastating effect,
she said, with prisons serving as receptacles for people who can no longer find a place in their societies. However, this may
be an auspicious moment in U.S. history to confront the prison crisis, marked in part by President Obama‘s election and the
economic crisis, she said.
Davis was one of about 30 scholars and others who participated in the multidisciplinary two-day symposium that aimed to
contribute serious discussion to the growing national debate on the growth of the prison-industrial complex and racial
disparities in the U.S.
In residency at the University for the week, Davis spoke Thursday night to a packed house in Newcomb Hall Ballroom that
included hundreds of students – some even traveling from Charlotte, N.C. – as well as faculty, conference participants and
community members, including those who identified themselves as ex-convicts and ‗60s radicals during the question-andanswer period following her talk.
Davis and Deborah McDowell, Director of the Woodson Institute, both mentioned that Jefferson designed not only his
renowned buildings at the University and Monticello, but also an early penitentiary. He contracted architect Benjamin
Latrobe to design the first prison in Virginia, with cells for solitary confinement.
...STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
“The Problem of punishment” Symposium
P AGE 17
D AVIS ON P RISON S YSTEM (continued from page 16)
Putting offenders in prison was considered a more enlightened idea than the less humane conditions and practices criminals
were subjected to around the turn of the 19th century, Davis said.
The example of Jefferson‘s legacy, she said, tells us ―to be aware of the histories we inhabit.‖
The prevalence of corporal punishment for actions that were considered crimes clashed with ideas for the new democracy.
Because of slavery, however, the need for corporal punishment persisted, she said. For example, Davis recounted what
ex-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass told a British audience in London at the time: Although laws were written to
sentence a white man to capital punishment only for the crime of murder, there were 70 crimes that could lead a black
man to his death.
―These are the historical roots we see today. The ideas were incorrect, but the early American government saw prisons as
progressive, a move away from retribution,‖ said Davis, who was active in the black power movement and spent time in
jail in the early ‗70s, before being acquitted at trial. ―Prison was supposed to allow people to reform themselves.
Incarceration turned out to be far more damaging to the psyche … and could not effect rehabilitation,‖ she said. ―We have
to undo past damage.
―Racism fuels the prison-industrial complex,‖ she asserted. "The vast disproportion of black people makes it clear. …
Black men are criminalized.‖
Law enforcement surveillance determines who gets caught and who goes to prison, Davis explained. Many people commit
acts that, if discovered, would result in prison sentences, but they are safe because the police don't target their
communities for surveillance. The assumption, even among some African-Americans, that black people have a proclivity
to criminal activities is part of the daily working of racism.
―The fear of free black bodies is contained in the systems and strategies that criminalize racism,‖ Davis maintained.
She advocated for more productive modes of addressing people who do harm to others and their communities. ―When we
think of 2.3 million Americans being in prison on any given day, and all the resources required to sustain the system, why
do we not mobilize to change this?" she asked.
It is because of the fear of confronting persistent racism and its history in the U.S., she said. "We are all infected."
Davis pointed out there are no great disparities in drug use among the range of people and communities. Recently, law
officers have shifted their surveillance to rural white people, and oddly enough, that has subjected them to the same form
of racism to which black men are subjected.
Americans must develop and negotiate social relations to be able to talk about racism without it being so uncomfortable,
she said, adding that a justice system must be created that is not based on revenge, but rather is more restorative. The
political climate seems to be more hopeful, she said, lauding Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Webb's recent call for prison reform.
Center-supported events
P AGE 18
The Center also supports and promotes events concerning race-related issues that are sponsored by other organizations
and departments. Several events during the 2008-2009 school year are listed below.

On September 12, 2008, the Psychology Department and the Office of African American Affairs hosted the 2008
Distinguished Alumna Lecture, ―Navigating Issues of Race during Interracial Interactions,― by Princeton University
professor J. Nicole Shelton.

University of Colorado professor of law and former attorney-adviser for the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S.
Department of Justice, Clare Huntington, delivered an evening lecture at the Law School on September 17, 2008.
Huntington‘s talk examined ―The Role of States and Cities in Immigration Regulation‖ and was sponsored by the
Immigration Law Program.

The University of Virginia Black Law Student Association and Rex E. Lee Law Society co-sponsored ―Race and
Mormonism: A Story of Two Minorities‖ on September 18, 2008. The speaker for the event was Winston
Wilkinson, Director of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services and member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia presented a roundtable event and webcast on ―Race and
Gender in American Politics,‖ on September 25, 2008. The event featured Paul Freedman, Virginia associate
professor of politics, Lynn Sanders, Virginia associate professor of politics, Brian Nosek, Virginia assistant professor
of psychology; Vesla Weaver, Virginia assistant professor of politics and Faculty Associate in the Miller Center‘s
Governing America in a Global Era program, and Nick Winter, assistant professor of politics. Wall Street Journal
Atlanta Bureau Chief and author of the New York Times bestseller, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of
Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, Douglas A. Blackmon, led the discussion.

Students United to Promote Racial Awareness hosted a dinner and discussion of the film, ―Scottsboro: An American
Tragedy‖ on November 3, 2008.

On December 3, 2008, the Office of the Vice Provost for International Programs, International Studies Office, and the
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures joined to present a teach-in on the recent
terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. The event, ―Thinking through Mumbai: A Panel Discussion and Teach-In,‖ featured
John Echeverri-Gent, Virginia associate professor of politics, local pastor Dane Gressett, and Geeta Patel,
associate professor of Studies in Women and Gender and Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures.

Vesla Weaver, Virginia assistant professor of politics and Faculty Associate in the Miller Center‘s Governing America
in a Global Era program, delivered a lunchtime lecture, entitled, ―Frontlash: Race and the Transformation of American
Crime Policy and Politics.‖ This event was held on February 13, 2009 and was sponsored by the Black Law Students
Association.

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, a veteran military pilot and prosecutor, chronicled his decision not to
prosecute Guantanamo detainees with coerced evidence, at the Law School on February 17, 2009. His talk, ―The
Conscience of the Colonel: Reflections of a Guantanamo Bay Prosecutor,‖ was sponsored by the Law Christian
Fellowship.

The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies hosted Sally Price for a March 27
discussion of ―Silences in the Museum: Reflections on the Musée du Quai Branly.‖ Price is currently a professor of
anthropology and American Studies at the College of William and Mary.

The Honorable Leonie M. Brinkema, the Eastern District of Virginia judge who presided over September 11 coconspirator Zacarias Moussaoui‘s criminal trial, delivered the keynote lecture at the 22nd Annual Sokol Colloquium.
The colloquium, held on April 2, 2009, examined ―Human Rights Litigation in U.S. Courts.‖

On April 21, 2009, Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty sponsored a talk by Bryan Stevenson on ―Race,
Poverty, and the Death Penalty.‖ Stevenson currently serves as Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative.
U NIVERSITY OF V IRGINIA
S CHOOL OF L AW
C ENTER FOR THE S TUDY
OF R ACE AND LAW
Phone: 434-924-3299
www.law.virginia.edu/race
The Center‘s mission is to foster intellectual and scholarly exploration
of the intersections of race and law in American society. It is
motivated by the belief that a deeper appreciation of how these
intersections came about and what their central characteristics are is
necessary for progress. The Center, founded in 2003, advances racial
understanding by providing opportunities for students, scholars,
practitioners and community members to examine and exchange ideas
related to race and law through lectures, symposia and scholarship. In
the last five years, the Center has grown from the dream of a few
students into a vibrant community. We hope to not only continue
the Center‘s current programming but, in addition, cultivate new and
fresh ideas, and build the Center into a major element of the Law
School‘s academic landscape.
A BOUT THE D IRECTOR
Kim Forde-Mazrui became a member of the faculty in 1996 and Director of the
Center in 2003. He teaches courses in criminal law and procedure, constitutional
law, and race and law. His research interests include race and criminal procedure,
race in the child placement process, affirmative action, and reparations.
Forde-Mazrui is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law
School, where he received the Carl Gussin Memorial Prize for excellence in trial
advocacy and the Henry M. Bates Memorial Scholarship, the highest award given to
outstanding seniors. He was note editor of the Michigan Law Review and a member
of Order of the Coif, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Golden Key National Honor Society.
Kim Forde-Mazrui
A BOUT THE A SSISTANT D IRECTOR
Tim Lovelace became Assistant Director of the Center in 2006. In his role, he
supports the Center‘s short courses, guest lectures, panel discussions, faculty
workshops, and symposia and collaborates with the Director to develop new initiatives
aimed at producing interdisciplinary scholarly analysis and research on issues of race
and law. Lovelace also began work on a Ph.D. in history at UVA when he accepted
the position with the Center.
Tim Lovelace
Lovelace is a graduate of the University‘s Law School, where was an Oliver Hill
Scholar. As a law student, he was President of the Black Law Students Association, a
member of the Virginia Sports and Entertainment Law Journal‘s editorial board, a
member of the Raven Society Leadership Council, and the recipient of the Thomas
Marshall Miller Prize at graduation, an award given by the faculty to an outstanding
and deserving student.