Civil
rights attorney and author, Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. will
speak on Race and the Roberts Court next Tuesday, April 1, 2008
at 3:00 p.m. in the Law School, Room 401. There will be a book signing outside the room
before the talk, beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Legendary civil
rights pioneer Charles Ogletree, Washington University Distinguished
Visiting Scholar, will present his views on "Race and the Roberts
Court" at 3pm on Tuesday, April 1, in the School of Law Room 401,
Anheuser-Busch Hall. The talk, co-sponsored by the School of Law
Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series, the African &
African American Studies Program, and the University's Assembly
Series, is free and open to the public.  

One of the most
famous attorneys of the post- civil rights era and a member of the
first generation to benefit from the landmark lawsuit, Brown
vs. the Board of Education, Ogletree is a prominent lawyer,
teacher, and criminal defense attorney. At Harvard University, he
holds the Jesse Climenko Professorship of Law, and is the founding and
executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race
and Justice. The institute, named in honor of the visionary lawyer who
led the Brown litigation, focuses on racial and justice
issues.  

 
Ogletree's most recent publications include two books related to
the Brown decision: Brown at 50: the Unfinished
Legacy, and his historical memoir, All Deliberate Speed:
Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of
Education. He also is the co-editor of the recent book,
From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in
America (with Austin Sarat).  In addition to contributing
articles, reviews and book chapters, he also edited Beyond the
Rodney King Story: an Investigation of Police Conduct in Minority
Communities.

Ogletree's career began as a staff attorney in the District of
Columbia's public defender service and quickly rose through the
ranks to become Deputy Director.  He joined the Harvard Law
School faculty in 1985.  Serving as legal counsel to Anita Hill
in the notorious 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Justice
Clarence Thomas, Ogletree was thrust into the national spotlight. His
reflections on those experiences are covered in a chapter of the book
entitled Race, Gender and Power in America, co-edited by
Hill and Emma Coleman   He also co-chairs the Reparations
Coordinating Committee with Randall Robinson, a group dedicated to
investigating reparations for descendants of African slaves.

Ogletree has been recognized as a major African-American leader many
times; he was included in Savoy Magazine's "100 Most Influential
Blacks in America;" he was noted by Black Enterprise Magazine as a
"legal legend" among the U.S.'s top African-American lawyers; and
he was selected by the National Law Journal as of the 100 Most
Influential Lawyers in America.

He is the recipient of many major awards, including the National Bar
Association's Equal Justice Award, and the Bar's "Renaissance
Man of the Legal Profession."  He received the Man of Vision
Award from the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston, and the
Albert Sacks-Paul A. Freund Award for Teaching Excellence at Harvard
Law School. >From the Urban League he was honored with its 21st
Century Achievement Award.