Harvard To Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education
Post Date: April 8, 2004
Thurgood Marshall and other lawyers, including Jack Greenberg and Spottswood Robinson, celebrating May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education victory
Harvard University is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the landmark United States Supreme Court decision in the case, Brown v. Board of Education, with a weeklong series of lectures and panel discussions sponsored by Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, beginning Monday, April 12 through Saturday, April 17. Events are free and open to the public, and will be held on the campus of Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass.
The celebration is noteworthy in several contexts:
First, Harvard University has invited lawyers and judges who argued the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court, to celebrate the decision which mandated the desegregation of public schools with "all deliberate speed," and which stated that all children are entitled to the same high quality of education regardless of race. This celebration presents the rare opportunity for the public to hear panel discussions with some of the 1954 attorneys who prepared and argued the case before the Supreme Court, and to hear their reflections on the impact of the decision fifty years later.
Also, the Harvard 50th Anniversary Celebration of Brown v. Board of Education provides the opportunity for the public to hear nationally known educators, economists, and lawyers, concerned with equal justice, discuss the impact of desegregation on schools and personal careers.
Highlights of the weeklong celebration include:
- "Why Brown was a Hard Case", a lecture by Professor Michael Klarman, University of Virginia Law School, on Monday April 12, 5 p.m., Austin Hall East, Harvard Law School.
- "Reflections on the Jurisprudence of Justice Thurgood Marshall: A View from His Law Clerks," a panel discussion, with nine Harvard Law School faculty who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, with opening remarks by Lawrence Summers, President of Harvard University, on "Personal Reflections on Brown, Bakke, Grutter and Harvard's Role," Tuesday, April 13, 5:30 p.m., Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.
- "Personal Reflections on Brown v. Board of Education" will be a discussion and book signing by the authors of two books on the Supreme Court case. Professor Martha Minow, Harvard Law School, will discuss her upcoming book, After Brown, and Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Harvard Law School, will discuss his new book, All Deliberate Speed, on Wednesday, April 14, 5 p.m. Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.
- "Harvard Law Review Symposium on Brown v. Board of Education," Thursday, April 15, 6 p.m., Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School, includes panelists: Professor Reva Siegel, Yale Law School; Professor Frank Michelman, Harvard Law School; Professor Richard Ford, Stanford Law School; Professor Juan Perea, University of Florida Law School; Visiting Professor Molly McUsic, Harvard Law School; and Professor David Wilkins, Harvard Law School.
- "Brown v. Board of Education and Its Aftermath," is a series of lectures beginning at 4: p.m. on Friday April 16, Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. Beginning with "Brown and the Montgomery Bus Boycott" by Fred Gray, Attorney for Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; followed by "Prosecution of the Defendants of the 16th St. Baptist Church Bombing," by Doug Jones, the prosecuting attorney in this case; and culminating in a keynote address "Reflections on Brown," by Dennis Archer, the current, and first African-American, President of the American Bar Association.
- "Looking Back: A Conversation with the Brown Lawyers--Reflections on Brown Fifty Years Later," on Saturday, April 17, at 9 a.m., in the Austin North Room, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. The panelists include many of the lawyers involved in the Brown case litigation, including: The Honorable Judge Constance Baker Motley, The Honorable Louis Pollak, Attorney Oliver Hill, Attorney Jack Greenberg (Columbia University), The Honorable Robert L. Carter, The Honorable Jack Weinstein, as well as children of the Brown lawyers, John Marshall, Attorney Karen Hastie Williams, and Charles Hamilton Houston, Jr.
- "Looking Forward: Re-Argument of Brown with Current Issues--Resegregation, Justice, Twenty-Five Year Outline, the Harm of Integration on African Americans, and the Meaning of the 14th Amendment," on Saturday, April 17, at 10:30 a.m., in the Austin North Room, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School. This panel discussion co-moderated by Professor Elena Kagan, Dean of Harvard Law School, and Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Vice-Dean of Clinical Programs at Harvard Law School, will include leading panelists in the fields of law, education, and economics from Harvard University: Derek C. Bok, former Harvard University President and former Dean of the Law School; from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Professors Gary Orfield, and Charles Willie; from Harvard Law School, Professors Randall Kennedy, Richard Parker, Kenneth Mack, and Laurence Tribe; from Harvard University, Professor of Economics Caroline Hoxby; and one of the premier litigators in the United States, Attorney John Payton.
All events will be webcast live for those who are unable to attend.
Photo courtesy of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund