Post date: August 29, 2001 — 1:15 p.m.
Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree has been awarded the 2001 Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit by the Washington Bar Association. The award was presented in honor of Ogletree’s work promoting social justice and equality.
“Charles Ogletree is worthy of the award named after Mr. Houston because ‘Tree’ has never forgotten his roots,” said Donald A. Thigpen, president of the Washington Bar Association. “[He] has labored tirelessly to defend the fundamental rights of not only African-Americans, but all people to live in this country with dignity and rights accorded to each of us as citizens.”
Upon receiving the award, Ogletree told the gathering, “I will fight with you, I will fight for you, and if necessary, I will fight against you to ensure justice in the 21st century.”
Ogletree has been on the faculty of Harvard Law School since 1984. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he currently serves as faculty director of the School’s extensive Clinical Programs. In 1988, Ogletree founded the Law School’s “Saturday School” Program to help promote increased dialogue between students and professors, and to provide a forum for the presentation of cutting edge research.
A 1978 graduate of Harvard Law School, Ogletree also holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University. He is known nationally for his involvement in such high-profile cases as the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings and racial profiling cases.
Charles Hamilton Houston was a 1921 graduate of Harvard Law School. Considered a leader of the civil rights movement, Houston’s helped train many of the most influential civil rights attorneys of the 20th century.
Previous winners include Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, A. Leon Higginbotham, and Norma Holloway Johnson.
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