Post date: September 12, 2000
Harvard Law School will host on September 22-24 “A Celebration of Black Alumni” on the Law School’s campus. This inaugural event will celebrate the more than 1500 Black graduates of the Law School.
To honor those who made it possible for African Americans to become a part of an institution like Harvard, the Law School will present the first Harvard Law School Medal of Freedom to the litigation team that successfully argued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case. All surviving members of the team or their family representatives, including Mrs. Thurgood Marshall, will attend the presentation.
The Law School’s Black alumni include such luminaries as American Express CEO designate Kenneth I. Chenault ’76, Congressman William J. Jefferson ’72, BET Holdings President and COO Debra L. Lee ’80, Fannie Mae CEO and former Office of Management and Budget Director Franklin D. Raines ’76, TransAfrica president Randall M. Robinson ’70, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Judith W. Rogers ’64, former Baltimore mayor Kurt L. Schmoke ’76, District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams ’87, and Carver Bancorp, Inc. CEO Deborah C. Wright ’84.
Other weekend highlights include the following.
“For over a century Harvard Law School has been a leader in training African Americans,” said HLS Dean Robert C. Clark. “Among the ranks of this unprecedented group are CEOs and general counsels of Fortune 500 corporations, influential partners in major law firms, leaders on Wall Street, prominent politicians and social advocates, federal and state judges, academics in every discipline, successful entrepreneurs, novelists and entertainers, and a host of other leaders in their chosen fields. The School looks forward to celebrating the accomplishments of this very impressive group. We are proud to have more African American graduates than virtually any law school in the country.”
“This is a quite historic moment for the Harvard Law School,” said Charles Ogletree, the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard. “The Law School is bringing together the Brown v. Board of Education litigation team for the first time in recent years.”
“This gathering is destined to be one of the most important events ever held at Harvard and will set the tone for how America addresses issues of race, law, and educational opportunity for years to come,” said Celebration organizer David B. Wilkins, the Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard.
For additional information, please see the Reunion website at http://www.law.harvard.edu/alumni/celebration.