legal aid

Firstly let me just apologize for not having a regular posting schedule. I've been interning, GREing, enjoying NYC, catching up on reading, and brainstorming for the thesis. So do light a candle and keep this Brooklyn and Q-boro sista in your prayers, as I try to handle my biz.
Now back to regularly scheduled programming...

Wrapping up the "Who's Got Your Back" summer series is none other than lawyer/activist Charles Ogletree the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, and the founder of the Charles Hamilton Houston (go Amherst!) Institute for Race and Justice. But old dude's Ivy League caliber credentials aren't all he has in his arsenal (he did his undergrad at Standford, then went on to Harvard Law); he is also uniquely committed to the struggle for economic equality, racial justice, and educational access.

He authored All Deliberate Speed, a thought-provoking assessment of the US in the years since the seminal Brown v. Board of Ed. court case. Often sobering, but written with levity and a clear voice, Prof. Ogletree at once admonishes the nation for failing its underprivileged students, but also leaves room for hope and a reason to keep fighting to serve children better than we have yesterday.

Prof. Ogletree also provided legal counsel to Anita Hill during the hot mess that was the Clarence Thomas congressional hearings which ultimately led up to his swearing into the Supreme Court. (How did we let C-money replace Thurgood "No Good" on the bench?). And today he continues to seek justice for the victims of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, which destroyed the Black Wall Street, through reparations. He started these efforts with Johnnie Cochran (he wasn't just acquitting OJ), and while the road has been rocky, he continues on with tenacity and purpose.

Prof. O is truly carrying on tradition, making Charles Hamilton Huston, and Thurgood Marshall proud.


And now I must ask, how will I carry on tradition? How will you? Who's back you got?