Black Voices in American Law

As you probably know, February is Black History Month - so I’m ending strong with this post! The following seven people have significantly impacted our nation’s legal system in one way or another. Some are famous, some are not; some are lawyers and judges, others don’t have law degrees. But they are all scholars, advocates, and trailblazers in American law, and for that I celebrate them.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive. These are a few of my personal legal heroes, but there are many many more. Additionally, each person deserves an entire book, so I tried to focus on the most pertinent stories and legal accomplishments!

SOJOURNER TRUTH

Abolitionist and Women’s Rights Suffragist

I believe her official title is “The Original Badass”…

Right off the bat, a non-lawyer! Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and author. Born Isabella Baumfree to enslaved parents in 1797 New York, she was sold three times by the age of 13, forced into a loveless marriage, and promised freedom, only to be told “eh…I changed my mind” on the day of her release. Which, incidentally, was July 4, 1826 - the cruelest of ironies.

Luckily, Isabella was able to escape; a year later, the 1827 New York Anti-Slavery Law emancipated all slaves living in the state. However, Isabella’s former owner sold one of her sons after the law passed (obviously illegal!), so she turned to the courts for help.

Long story short - Isabella Baumfree was the first Black woman to sue a white man in an American court and win.

Isabella later became a fervent Christian and changed her name to Sojourner Truth, a nod to her calling to travel and speak truth about the injustice of slavery and female oppression. She traveled all over the eastern United States, attending women’s rights conventions and meeting with other equal rights activists like Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Sojourner delivered a particularly powerful speech at a conference in Akron, Ohio, called “Ain’t I a Woman?” and written in a Southern slave dialect. It established her as the leading African-American female abolitionist and suffragist, and she even met with President Lincoln in October 1964. There is little doubt that her work influenced the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation and later, the American women’s right to vote.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Civil Rights Activist

Dr. King also wasn’t a lawyer, but he was integral to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 - which is why we have an integrated society today. Like Sojourner Truth, MLK was born “Michael” in 1929 but later changed his name to “Martin.” Throughout his childhood, young adulthood, theological study, and doctorate years, Dr. King was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In December 1955, he led the first African-American nonviolent protest in contemporary America. It was a bus boycott and it was successful; after 382 days of protesting, the Supreme Court confirmed that segregated bussing was illegal in a case called Browder v. Gayle.

As we all know, this was just the beginning! Between 1957 and 1968, Dr. King traveled over six million miles, spoke upwards of twenty-five hundred times, and wrote five books and countless articles. His “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and "I Have a Dream” speech are, of course, legendary - he was named Time’s Man of the Year in 1963 and became the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient at just thirty-five.

Of course, that’s the good stuff. In that same time frame, Dr. King was arrested over 20 times; assaulted at least four times; had his home bombed; was tracked and targeted by the US government; and received god-only-knows-how-many death threats.

On July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act went into effect and outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.* Less than two years later, Dr. King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of a Memphis motel room - preparing to lead a protest march with striking sanitation workers in the city.

THURGOOD MARSHALL

First African-American Supreme Court Justice

Thurgood Marshall was a famous American lawyer and civil rights activist long before he joined the Supreme Court. He graduated from Howard University School of Law in 1933, started his own legal practice in Baltimore, and then founded and directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In that position, he argued several landmark cases before the Supreme Court, including a little case called Brown v. Board of Education.

We’ll start there, with the 1954 death of “separate but equal” in public schools. Nbd.

Seven years later, JFK appointed Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (that’s just one federal court below SCOTUS). He then became Solicitor General under President Johnson, who ultimately appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1967. He was the Court’s first African-American justice and served on the bench for 24 years.

Marshall is known as “The Great Dissenter” for - you guessed it! - his scathing dissents from SCOTUS majority opinions which violated civil and/or human rights. This is a personal favorite quote (from a ‘91 decision called Payne v. Tennessee, re: victim impact testimony during death penalty trials):

“Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court’s decision-making.”

WOOOOOOOOF. Marshall was a staunch supporter of civil rights and protector of criminal defendants trial; he was anti-death penalty because he firmly believed that racial bias can never be eliminated from the legal system, and his opinions have been cited by abolitionists time and time again. American law will always remember him as one of the greatest Justices to ever grace the Supreme Court!

WILLIAM GUNN

Air Force Colonel (ret.) and former Judge Advocate

I had the honor of connecting with Colonel Gunn in my Trial Advocacy class, through one of his mentees - also a former JAG!

Colonel Gunn is a 1980 graduate of the Air Force Academy, 1986 graduate of Harvard Law School via the Air Force FLEP, and former Judge Advocate. (Fun fact - that’s my exact trajectory!!) In 2003, Colonel Gunn was named the first Chief Defense Counsel for the DoD’s Defense Office of Military Commissions, so he could lead the military team in defending Guantanamo Bay detainees. Those detainees were selected for trial before military commissions - the first time such proceedings were done in over sixty years. Two years later, Colonel Gunn retired after two and a half decades of military service.

Well, “retired” is a strong word. Rather than lounging on a beach, Colonel Gunn immediately began serving as a church minister and President/CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. He also founded the Gunn Law Firm to provide services for local veterans and military members. In 2008, President Obama appointed Colonel Gunn to be the General Counsel for the US Department of Veterans Affairs - the second largest governmental department, next to the Department of Defense.

Now, Colonel Gunn may not be someone you envisioned on this list. But I think people like him are essential for so many reasons. First, defense work is not glamorous or often highly coveted, but everyone has a constitutional right to an adequate defense when accused of a crime. Having technically proficient and morally sound lawyers serve as defense counsel is necessary to actually fulfill that constitutional right. Second, Colonel Gunn is the epitome of “life-long service” in an increasingly individualistic age. I can’t imagine the amount of lives he’s impacted through that service. Finally, the American Bar Association reports that only 5% of current US attorneys are Black. As part of that 5% - and a hugely successful one - Colonel Gunn is both a modern role model and nod towards a more inclusive legal profession.

AVA DuVERNAY

Film Director

Ava DuVernay is another woman not directly involved with the law, but who has used her filmmaking skills to shed light on past and current injustice within the legal system.

I had the pleasure of watching two DuVernay documentaries for my fall law-in-film class!

Ava DuVernay is a writer, director, producer, and filmmaker; to date, she has won Emmy, BAFTA, and Peabody Awards, and an Academy Award nomination. Her most widely acclaimed works are the following:

Selma - A 2014 film about Dr. King, President Johnson, and the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song at the 2014 Academy Awards, and won the latter for the song “Glory,” by John Legend and rapper Common. Selma is currently available on Hulu.

13th - A 2016 film about race in the criminal legal system, titled after the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The 13th Amendment outlaws slavery unless as a punishment for a crime, and 13th argues that slavery has been perpetuated through mass incarceration of people of color. The documentary features prominent activists, public figures, and politicians, and discusses a vast array of subjects relating to criminal justice. 13th is available on Netflix, and I highly recommend it.

When They See Us - A 2019 crime drama miniseries about the Central Park Five. The series explores the lives of the five Black teenagers falsely accused of raping and attempting to murder a female jogger in Central Park, NY in 1989. When They See Us is available on Netflix.

As a Black female filmmaker, Ava DuVernay is shaking up the game. Her work has been hailed as essential to informing the public about the modern fight for racial justice; as she herself said, “an artist and an activist are not so far apart!”

BRYAN STEVENSON

Founder of the Equal Justice Initiative

And author of best-selling book and movie by the same name - *Just Mercy*.

I mean, he’s played by Michael B. Jordan. Talk about dreams coming true…

Bryan Stevenson is a practicing lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a human rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. He’s another Harvard Law alum and began working with death row inmates as a law student. His book Just Mercy describes his first interaction with a man on death row, and explores an early EJI success story - the exoneration of Walter McMillian, wrongfully convicted for murder.

The story of how the EJI came about is absolutely fascinating. Basically, it began as the Southern Center for Human Rights, and Bryan Stevenson ran the Alabama operation - an office dedicated to death-penalty defense, funded by Congress. But in 1989, Congress pulled the funding. Rather than close the center, Stevenson converted it into a non-profit called the Equal Justice Initiative and guaranteed a defense for anyone given the death penalty in Alabama.

Since then, Bryan Stevenson has argued - and won - multiple cases in front of the Supreme Court, including a very famous one called Miller v. Alabama in 2012. Miller essentially banned mandatory LWOP (life in prison without the possibility of parole) for juveniles (anyone 17 or younger at the time of their offense). The EJI has also won some huge legal challenges regarding unfair sentencing, abuse of incarcerated people, and exoneration; to date, they’ve won reversals/relief/release for over 135 wrongly convicted people on death row.

Bryan Stevenson is the future of criminal defense reform, and you can see him in Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th!

Kamala Harris

49th Vice President of the United States

On January 20, 2021, Kamala Harris became the first woman, first African-American, first Asian-American, and first graduate of a historically Black college to become Vice President of the United States. Her inauguration showed millions of young Black, Asian, and female Americans that they too can participate in the highest echelons of public leadership.

Before she became the nation’s highest-ranking woman in politics, Kamala Harris served as San Francisco’s District Attorney and California’s Attorney General. Though people have criticized her actions in those positions, it did give Ms. Harris the inside scoop when determining what she would do re: criminal justice if elected President!

Here are a few key elements from her criminal justice plan, presented during campaign in November 2019:

Legalize marijuana federally
Abolish mandatory minimum sentencing
Abolish the federal death penalty
Get rid of solitary confinement
Put an end to private prisons
End cash bail
Establish a National Criminal Justice Commission to study the current system and make recommendations for reform.

Of course, Kamala Harris wasn’t elected President - but she is VP to a POTUS who shares many concerns and has promised similar changes. We’ll just have to wait and see what she can accomplish in her time as Vice President, but her mere election has already spoken volumes.

That’ll round out Black History Month for 2021! I hope I introduced a few new faces, gave a new fact or two, and provided some new resources (books, documentaries, and organizations) to extend beyond this post and the month of February. I’d also love to hear about other names that didn’t make this list - as I said, I definitely didn’t cover them all. Thanks for reading and happy March!!