Derrick Albert Bell (1930-2011) served on the Harvard Law School faculty from 1969 to 1992. He was a Lecturer on Law 1969-1971; Professor of Law 1971-1980; Walter E. Meyer Research Professor 1978-1979; Visiting Professor of Law 1985-1986; Professor of Law 1986-1989; and Weld Professor of Law 1989-1992.
Research: Critical race theory, racism and American law, criminal law, the law of slavery.
Education: Duquesne University A.B. 1952; University of Pittsburgh LL.B. 1957.
Selected Scholarship / Representative Publications: “Race, Racism, and American Law” (first published 1973); “Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism” (first published 1992); “Silent Covenants: Brown v. Board of Education and the Unfulfilled Hopes for Racial Reform” (2004).
Noteworthy Appointments: Staff Attorney, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 1960-1966; Deputy Special Assistant to the Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1966-1968; Director, Western Center on Law and Poverty, 1968-1969; Dean, University of Oregon Law School, 1980-1985.