UA “Rethinking Race” Events beginning this week!

The University of Akron is hosting “Rethinking Race” – an annual series in which race and race-related issues can be discussed, examined, and hopefully, better understood through a variety of programming options.

Here is a listing of some of these events that are of particular interest to the legal community or are sponsored by the School of Law:

Race: Addressing the Inequities; Seeing Them and Working to Change Them
Wednesday, February 3rd; 3:00 – 4:30 at Student Union 312

Attorneys from Community Legal Aid and representatives from East Akron Neighborhood Development and Mayor Horrigan’s office will speak on racial trends in housing patterns in Akron, including work and training being done in the area of housing, health, tax liens, criminal justice and fair housing. The 2015 U.S. Supreme Court disparate impact fair housing case, and what it means for our work, will also be discussed. The impact and the effects of institutional racism and economic status are strongly linked in our country, and unraveling that linkage is something Legal Aids around the country are trying to do.

Transforming American racial conflicts: Why peacemaking is desperately needed today
Thursday, February 4th; 2:00 -3:30 at Student Union Theatre

Harvard Law-educated Grande Lum will discuss how his agency, the Community Relations Service (CRS) has worked tirelessly in communities like Baltimore, Ferguson, and countless others to establish a dialogue and construct a path to peace in the face of deep racial divisions and civil unrest.

Grande Lum was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed Director of the CRS in 2012. CRS is the Justice Department’s “Peacemaker” for community conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion and disability.

This event will is sponsored by the School of Law and the Center for Conflict Resolution. Mr. Lum will be introduced by Professor of Law Brant T. Lee.

Face to face: How to Talk About Race When It’s Impossible
Monday, February 8th; 1:00 – 2:30 at Student Union 314

Do you avoid sharing your opinion about race, or getting involved in a discussion on race issues? Have you had a bad experience talking about race? Law professor Brant Lee will share a few thoughts about why that happens, and then facilitate an open dialogue.

Race, Education, and the Law – From Brown v. Board to the Present
Monday, February 8th; 7:30 – 9:00 at Student Union Theatre

The first annual Dr. Helen K. Qammar Memorial Lecture welcomes Dr. Qammar’s son, Shammas Malik. Malik, a class of 2016 Harvard Law student, will discuss the history of efforts to create racial and socioeconomic equality in education, looking at where we are both as a nation and as a local community.

Library Film Series: Brothers of the Black List
Tuesday, February 9th; 12:00 – 2:00 at Student Union Theatre

September 4, 1992: An elderly woman in a small town in upstate New York reports an attempted rape by a young black man who cut his hand during the altercation. While looking for suspects, police contact officials at SUNY Oneonta, New York, a nearby college, and a school administrator reacts by handing over a list of names and residences of 125 black male students.

For the next several days, those students are tracked down and interrogated by various police departments under a presumption of guilty until proven innocent. In Brothers of the Black List, director Sean Gallagher tracks this story of racism that became the longest litigated civil rights case in American history.

Library Film Series: Stop (Moderated)
Wednesday, February 10th; 12:00 – 2:00 at Student Union Theatre

STOP is a feature length documentary the Floyd v City of New York, the class –action lawsuit that challenged the New York City Police Department’s practice of stop & frisk, and resulted in the landmark decision finding the practice unconstitutional. STOP follows three years in the life of David Ourlicht, one of the four named plaintiffs in Floyd vs. City of New York. By interweaving the story of David’s family with the action around the trial, STOP places the stop and frisk controversy in the context of a long history of civil rights.

Film Series: Anita: Speaking Truth to Power
Friday, February 12th; 12:00 – 2:00 at Student Union Theatre

A profile of Anita Hill, the African-American lawyer who challenged Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the US Supreme Court and thus exposed the problem of sexual harassment to the world.