Law School Panel to Recognize 40th Anniversary of Voting Rights Act Feb. 2
January 11, 2005
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.6190
The University of Baltimore School of Law will sponsor “Crossing the American Jordan: A Panel Recognizing 40 Years of the Voting Rights Act,” a panel discussion in honor of the 40th anniversary of the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, on Wednesday, Feb. 2. This event, presented in recognition of Chief Judge Robert Bell’s 30 years on the bench, will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the M. Scot Kaufman Auditorium in the University’s William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, 11 W. Mount Royal Ave. It is free and open to the public.
Simply put, the American system of voting was intended to discriminate. Gerrymandering, literacy tests, poll taxes, physical and economic intimidation–all were used to disenfranchise African-Americans in violation of the 15th Amendment, which forbade denial of the right to vote “... on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Even a college professor who answered fully and correctly questions posed by a semi-literate registrar, was denied that right. In more than 100 counties stretching across the Deep South, from Louisiana east and up into the Carolinas, African-Americans were effectively excluded from the political process.
On March 7, 1965, during a crucial moment of the civil rights movement, state troopers attacked peaceful marchers crossing Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. The brutal and unprovoked attack was broadcast on national television. In turn, as previous judicial attempts to guarantee 15th Amendment rights had failed, Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Lawyers from private civil rights organizations, as well as those in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, implemented the act with significant success. To this day, however, voting rights cases continue to come before the courts. Gerrymandering, often based on voters’ race and economic status, remains a significant issue in a number of states.
UB’s panel discussion will examine the progress made in the 40 years since the act was passed. Panelists include F. Michael Higginbotham, a professor in the UB School of Law, nationally recognized scholar and commentator on the impact of race on the law, and the recipient of a 2004-05 Wilson H. Elkins Professorship; and Jacqueline Berrien, associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a former program officer in the Governance and Civil Society Unit of the Ford Foundation’s Peace and Social Justice Program.
A question and answer period will follow. Please R.S.V.P. for this event by calling 410.837.7377
The University of Baltimore is an upper-division, graduate and professional university. UB—the state’s career-minded university—is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Robert G. Merrick School of Business.