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.