Speaker: Al Brophy of North Carolina Law

Brophy writes at the intersections of race, history and property law. He is the author of “Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921, Race, Reparations, Reconciliation.”

Ogletree’s latest book, “The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America,” details the Gates incident and uses it as a springboard to look at broader issues of race in America.

Ogletree will give the UF Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations’ (CSRRR) 2011 Spring Lecture. His talk is titled, “Are We in A Post-Racial Society? Race in America Today.” It will be held Thursday, March 24, 2011, at noon at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, in Holland Hall, Room 180.

Not only has Ogletree made a name for himself as a prominent legal theorist, criminal defense attorney and an influential champion of civil rights, he has written and lectured widely on issues of racial profiling, capital punishment, reparations and juvenile justice.

During the confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Ogletree was a member of Professor Anita Hill’s legal team. Ogletree has served as moderator on nationally-televised forums and made appearances as a guest commentator on multiple television shows including “Nightline,” “The Today Show,” “Larry King Live,” “Meet the Press” and the joint 2008 presidential election night coverage between “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” He is a mentor to President Barack Obama, who was a student of Ogletree’s at Harvard Law School.

Ogletree is the Jesse Climenko professor of law and the director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard.

The University of Florida Levin College of Law Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations is committed to fostering communities of dialogue on race. The center creates and supports programs designed to enhance race-related curriculum development for faculty, staff and students in collegiate and professional schools. Of the five U.S. law schools with race centers, the CSRRR is uniquely focused on curriculum development.

For additional information:
Matt Walker, UF Law Communications
352-273-0650 or mlwalker@law.ufl.edu

The book examines the current state of race and racial justice in the United States, stating that the racial caste system that existed during the pre-civil rights era is still in place, it has just been redesigned.

Alexander points out that even though the U.S. has elected its first black president, the fact remains that many young black men remain disadvantaged in major U.S. cities because they are labeled as felons or are already behind bars. The criminal justice system – while maintaining an outward stance of colorblindness – serves as a modern means of racial control, according to the book.

The New Jim Crow calls for a reevaluation of the current system and seeks to bring the issue of mass incarceration to the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in the U.S.

The discussion is sponsored by the Center on Children and Families and the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations. The event is free and open to the public.

About Michelle Alexander:

Alexander joined the OSU faculty in 2005 where she holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Prior to joining the OSU faculty, she was a member of the Stanford Law School faculty, where she served as Director of the Civil Rights Clinic. Alexander has significant experience in the field of civil rights advocacy and litigation. She has litigated civil rights cases in private practice as well as engaged in innovative litigation and advocacy efforts in the non-profit sector. For several years, Alexander served as the director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, which spearheaded a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement. While an associate at Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, she specialized in plaintiff-side class action suits alleging race and gender discrimination. Alexander is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Contact: Melissa Bamba, The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, 352-273-0614, bamba@law.ufl.edu or Debbie Willis, Center on Children & Families, 352-273-0613, willisd@law.ufl.edu.

GAINESVILLE, Fla.—A series of several high-profile incidents in recent months—from Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic meltdown to more serious cases involving the fatal undercover police killings of groom-to-be Sean Bell and an 88-year-old grandmother, Kathryn Johnston—have again brought attention to the subject of racial issues and will serve as the launching point for discussion at a forum entitled “A Series of Unfortunate Events? A Look at Race,” from noon to 2 p.m. Feb. 26 at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR), the event will be held in Holland Hall room 355B on the law school campus. Panelists include Milagros Peña, director of the Center For Women’s Studies and Gender Research and Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at UF; Faye Harrison, professor of African American Studies and Anthropology at UF and author of Resisting Racism and Xenophobia: Global Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Human Rights; Yuko Fujino, a doctoral student in the UF Department of Sociology whose teaching and research interests include U.S. racial and ethnic relations; and UF Law Professor Kenneth Nunn, whose teaching and research focuses on criminal law and African Americans and law.

Jabari Asim, a syndicated columnist, deputy editor of The Washington Post Book World, and author of the forthcoming The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t and Why, will give the keynote. Florida State Senator Anthony C. Hill, Sr. will make opening remarks. A reception will immediately follow the event. For more information, contact the center at csrrrr@law.ufl.edu or 273-0614.

GAINESVILLE, Fla — Internationally recognized human rights advocate and author Randall Robinson and former Jamaican cabinet minister Dudley Thompson will be featured here next week at the third annual conference on race and race relations sponsored by the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Thompson and Robinson will join with academicians and community activists from across the country invited by the law school’s Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, organizers for the event scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the J. Wayne Reitz Student Union. Several sessions during the two-day conference are free and open to the public.

“Mr. Robinson is known for his strong stands on South African freedom and Haitian justice, and Commissioner Thompson was involved in the nationalist struggles of Tanganyika and Kenya,” said Desta Meghoo-Peddie, acting CSRRR director. “We are honored to have two men so vital to the history of civil rights throughout the world involved in this conference.”

Among other featured participants are diversity consultant and author Peggy Nagae, Penelope Andrews of Albany Law School of Queens College/City University of New York, Vernellia Randall of the University of Dayton, David Brennan of Mercer University, Lorraine Bannai of Seattle University and Charles Pouncy of Temple University School of Law. Faculty members from the UF law school and other colleges and departments of the university also will be participating.

Robinson, a 1970 Harvard Law School graduate, will be keynote speaker at a Thursday dinner, speaking on “Reparations: Issues and Solutions.” Robinson is the author of “The Debt: The Case for Reparations to African-Americans and African Countries,” which addresses among other issues whether reparations can remedy the continuing consequences of slavery, and the just-released “The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other.”

He established the TransAfrica Forum in 1981, an organization spearheading the movement for influencing United States politics toward international black leadership. He worked on Capitol Hill as assistant to Congressmen Charles Diggs and William Clay, lived in Africa as a Ford Foundation Fellow, and was involved in the dismantlement of apartheid in South Africa.

Thompson served as Jamaican high commissioner to several African countries, and is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jamaica. He served in Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II, attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, and practiced law in many Caribbean countries * playing a role in the independence movements of Belize and the Bahamas. He recently served as lead advisory to the Jamaican government at the United Nation’s World Conference Against Racism held in South Africa, and also serves at direction of the Organization of African Unity on a group researching the issues of reparations for African Americans.

Additional conference information and registration details are available by contacting Meghoo-Peddie at 352.392.5013, or eMail: meghoo@law.ufl.edu.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. * Select academicians and community activists from across the country will join with their peers from the University of Florida and the Levin College of Law to discuss perspectives and recommendations on race and race relations at a two-day conference here in March.

Keynote speaker during the March 21-22 event will be Randall Robinson, author of Defending the Spirit: A Black Life in America ; The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, and the just-released The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other. Robinson is founder and president of TransAfrica, a human rights activist group, and will speak on “Reparations: Issues and Solutions.”

The conference, to be held in the J. Wayne Reitz Student Union, is coordinated by the law school’s Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) * an interdisciplinary academic entity that explores issues of race and race relations, and promotes racial tolerance and understanding, interracial dispute resolution and racial equality.

Other featured participants include Jamaican Ambassador Dudley Thompson, diversity consultant and author Peggy Nagae, Vernellia Randall of the University of Dayton, David Brennan of Mercer University, Maggie Chon of Seattle University, Penelope Andrews of Queens College/ City University of New York and Hilary Beckles, pro-vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies.

Six faculty members of the UF law school and nine from other colleges and departments of the university are scheduled to participate as well.

More information and registration details are available by contacting Desta Meghoo-Peddie, acting CSRRR director at 352.392.5013, or eMail: meghoo@law.ufl.edu.