When Medicine Meets Law, December 2, 2011

Center Anniversary featuring EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien, October 28, 2011

Jacqueline BerrienThe Center celebrated its first anniversary by hosting Jacqueline Berrien, Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on October 28, 2011. Ms. Berrien and Commission Chief Operating Officer Claudia Withers spoke to students in a Coffee Corner event about their journey from law school and into the Obama Administration. Ms. Berrien later addressed practitioners, advocates, students, and other members of the community at the Netherland Hilton, where she presented “Realizing the Dream of Equal Employment Opportunity in the 21st Century.”You can view scenes from the event here.

Michelle AlexanderMichelle Alexander, Professor of Law at Ohio State University, delivered a powerful address based on her influential book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color blindness on October 6, 2011. Professor Alexander challenged harsh war-on-drug policies that have disproportionately affected communities of color, and resulted in a resurgence of new forms of discrimination. The Center co-sponsored this event with the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights. Prior to the event, students discussed THE NEW JIM CROW INFORMALLY as part of “Beyond the Book” series.You can view the webcast and scenes from the event here.

Judge in Residence Program featuring Judge Wilhelmina Wright, March 2-3, 2011

The Honorable Wilhelmina WrightJudge Wright was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Jesse Ventura in 2002. She won re-election in 2010. While at the College of Law Judge Wright met with students during one of the many events held in her honor including a welcoming breakfast hosted by SLEC and a lunch discussion hosted by the Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice. During lunch, Judge Wright shared her personal journey from growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, to her position now on the Court of Appeals. Judge Wright's earliest memories of Cincinnati were of when she was a new attorney serving as a judicial clerk to David J. Keith of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Wright's lessons on law came early in her life when Norfolk public schools were ordered to integrate. Instead of integrating, Norfolk closed its schools in massive resistance to Brown v. Board of Education. Judge Wright explained the court order for integration as the single most important document in her life as it secured her and those like her a better life through education.

Judge Wright also gave a CLE presentation titled "Lawyers as Public Servants: Facing Today's Challenges with Ingenuity Inspired by Commitment to Service" describing the need for the judiciary and legal professions to provide greater access to the courts and pro bono services in all aspects of the law in order to ensure continuing ingenuity. Judge Wright closed by posing the questions, what if the Browns were pro se? What ingenuity would have been lost? What ingenuity do we lose now because litigants do not have the benefit of those who have been specially trained in law?

Judge Wright ended her time at the College of Law by addressing the first-year class on the art of trial advocacy.

Forum featuring Wayne McKenzie of the Vera Institute, February 2, 2011

Wayne McKenzieDuring his visit, Mr. McKenzie met with law students in the Crow's Nest where he discussed his journey from being a former Prosecutor to his current position at Vera where he uses research and advocacy to reform prosecutors' offices around the country in order to reduce racial disparities in criminal cases. Kelvin Morris '12 moderated the discussion between Mr. McKenzie and the students.

Mr. McKenzie also served on a panel of practitioners in the Cincinnati community including Angelina Jackson '04 of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center. Steve Tolbert, of the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, and Janaya Trotter of Ritter & Randolph, LLC. The panel discussed the causes consequences and cures of racial and ethnic disproportionality in conviction and incarceration rates. Janet Moore, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, moderated the discussion. Click here to watch the panel discussion video.

Coffee Corner: The Role of the Women's Center, January 22, 2011

UC Women's CenterBarb Rinto and Kim Fulbright of the Women's Center ventured to the law school to speak with students about the role the Women's Center plays in student activities on campus and Ms. Fulbright highlighted various programs offered by the Women's Center including the peer advocate program "Reclaim", Women's Initiative Network (WIN), and the Activist Coming Together (ACT) program. Maribeth Mincey '11 moderated the discussion. For more information on the Women's Center please click here.

Inaugural Conference featuring Tina Tchen, White House Council on Women and Girls, October 22, 2010

Tina TchenOn October 22, the Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice held its inaugural Conference, featuring Tina Tchen, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls (CWG) and Director of White House Office of Public Engagement gave the keynote speech.

During her visit to the College of Law for the launch event, Ms. Tchen met with law students. She discussed the history of the Council and highlighted key initiatives the White House has focused on to empower women and girls, including the Workplace Flexibility Program. Ms. Tchen also discussed her experiences growing up in Ohio as an Asian American woman and her unexpected road to the White House. She fielded student questions on current events, such as the increase in bullying-related suicides of LGBT youth and President Obama's commitment to end such bullying, and the Obama administration's position on the military's "don't ask-don't tell" policy. Ms. Tchen also spoke about the Administration's concern that the Administration seeks to address this problem with the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act.

Ms. Tchen's keynote remarks at the Netherland Hilton in downtown Cincinnati highlighted the achievements made in the areas of race, gender, and social justice over the last fifty years and drew attention to the continued need for advocacy in these areas. Ms. Tchen illustrated the economic disparities between men and women, and across racial and ethnic lines in terms of wages, net worth, and business ownership. The numbers were startling. For example, even though women make up the majority of undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. students, they still are paid on average of 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. In 2009, women's median earnings were $26,030 compared to men's median earnings of $36,331. Ms. Tchen noted that disparities are more pronounced by women of color: single black and Hispanic w9omen have a median net worth of $100 and $120 respectively, the median for single white women is $41,500.

Ms. Tchen also identifies violence as a significant barrier to women's well being. For example, she noted that one in three Native American women will be raped in their lifetime, which President Obama has described as "an assault on our national conscience that we can not ignore."

In addressing the barriers confronting women at the intersections of race and social class, and highlighting the fact that these ongoing inequities transcend identity politics, Ms. Tchen struck the right chord for the Center's launch. In closing, she noted quite compellingly that, despite assertions to the contrary, we are not yet living in a "post-racial, post-gender" era.