UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF LAW
Kim Forde-Mazrui
Professor of Law and Thurgood Marshall Research Professor
Director, Center for the Study of Race and Law
MEMORANDUM
To:
John C. Jeffries, Jr., Dean
From:
Kim Forde-Mazrui
Date:
October 1, 2004
Re:
Report on Center for the Study of Race and Law Activities, 2003-04
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I am pleased to report to you on the activities of the Center for the Study of Race and
Law for its inaugural year, September 2003 through June 2004. The Center has sponsored or
otherwise contributed to the following activities at the Law School and elsewhere on campus at
the University of Virginia:
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Symposium on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education;
Short Course on Critical Race Theory;
Public Lecture: “The Liberal Case Against Racial Preferences”
Conference on Public Service and the Law Panel
Student-Faculty Workshops;
Scholarly Lunch Discussions;
Panel Discussions
1. Symposium on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education: The
Center co-sponsored a symposium discussing the impact of Brown v. Board of Education on its
fiftieth anniversary held February 20-21, 2004. The symposium featured distinguished national
scholars on three panels that focused on the case’s impact on American society and law. Jack
Greenberg, one of the NAACP lawyers who argued Brown gave the keynote address. The panels
addressed Brown’s effect on school integration, Brown’s impact on the Civil Rights movement,
and Brown’s implications for the interpretation of the Constitution.
2. Short Course on Critical Race Theory: The Center sponsored a short course in
Critical Race Theory taught by Professor Dorothy Brown from Washington and Lee University
School of Law. The course, which met in the 2004 spring semester, explored the ways in which
race influences judicial decision-making through an examination of cases in the areas of torts,
contracts, criminal procedure, criminal law and sentencing, property, and civil procedure.
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3. Public Lecture: On November 7, 2004, the Center hosted its inaugural public lecture
in Caplin Pavilion, entitled "The Liberal Case Against Racial Preferences." The lecture was
delivered by University of Michigan Professor Carl Cohen, who was instrumental in initiating
the litigation that resulted in Gratz v. Bollinger in which the Supreme Court invalidated the
University of Michigan's racially preferential point system. Cohen criticized affirmative action
programs, arguing, among other grounds, that they corrode minorities’ long-term aspirations and
should be abandoned because they violate basic American democratic values of equality and
merit.
4. Conference on Public Service and the Law Panel: The Center sponsored a panel on
the future of civil rights at the 2004 Conference on Public Service and the Law. David
Domenici, the executive director of the See Forever Foundation, Art Rogers, the pro bono
coordinator of the Employment Justice Center, Christopher Sipes, a partner at Covington &
Burling, and Ted Small, the president of the Council on African American Affairs, discussed
civil rights issues in the areas of employment, education, and private law rights and policy, as
well as the impact of these issues on private and public practice. The panelists commented on
how civil rights issues have expanded to include new groups and how civil rights issues have
evolved over the last several decades.
5. Student-Faculty Workshops: The Center sponsored three faculty workshops during
the year. In these workshops, scholars who research issues related to race and the law were
invited to present works-in-progress to students and faculty at the law school.
(a) Professor Risa Goluboff presented her dissertation, “The Work of Civil Rights in the
1940s: The Department of Justice, the NAACP, and African-American Labor,” at a workshop on
September 30, 2003. Goluboff studied African-American workers and civil rights leaders in the
1940s to examine what lawyers and claimants thought civil rights should do to reduce injustice
before the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education.
(b) Visiting Professor Gordon Hylton presented his scholarship on “The Professional
Lives of Black Lawyers in Post-Civil War Virginia” at a workshop on October 13, 2003.
Professor Hylton argued that the number of black lawyers in Virginia rose steadily during
Reconstruction, when there were virtually no criteria for admission to the bar, but stagnated once
the state passed its Jim Crow constitution in 1902.
(c) Finally, Ethan Blue, a doctoral candidate at the Carter G. Woodson Institute for
African and African American Studies, presented his dissertation at a workshop on November 4,
2003. Blue’s research examines the changes and continuities in white male working-class
formation as well as the state’s relationship to racially subordinate populations. His dissertation,
entitled “Prison Labor Laws and White Working Class Formation,” analyzes laws regulating
prison labor and the effect of these laws in protecting the livelihoods of white male workers. He
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argues that these laws did not simply reflect racial difference and hierarchy, but rather produced
and reproduced hierarchy in different political economic moments and conditions.
6. Scholarly Lunch Discussion: The Center sponsored a scholarly lunch discussion
during 2003-2004. Scholarly lunch discussions are open to students, faculty, and other members
of the law school community. Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui discussed the meaning and
implications of Grutter v. Bollinger in a discussion on July 24, 2003. Professor Forde-Mazrui
questioned whether the Supreme Court made the right decision based on the wrong reasons.
7. Panel Discussions: The Center co-sponsored three panel discussions during the
2003-04 school year.
(a) At “Blackface and the First Amendment,” on October 20, 2003, Robert O’Neill,
Professor of Law, Director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression
and Stephen Railton, Professor of American Literature and author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin and
American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive,” discussed the history of blackface and the legal and
constitutional issues involving blackface as potentially protected speech.
(b) The Center also co-sponsored, with the Student Legal Forum, a panel discussion of
Grutter v. Bollinger on March 30, 2004, at which Maureen Mahoney and Scott Ballenger of
Latham & Watkins discussed their strategic approach to arguing Grutter. Whether to oppose
certiorari, on which arguments to focus, and whether to limit the number of amicus briefs were
among the many decisions the lawyers faced in preparing to litigate in the Supreme Court.
(c) In addition, the Center participated in a student panel discussion titled “Race, Identity
& Self-Segregation at U.Va” on November 18, 2003. The panel included four law students and
was moderated by Professor Anne Coughlin. The students discussed their views on race and
how race impacts their interactions with their fellow students.
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