Monday, December 7, 2009

Fifty Years after the Sit-Ins

The Center for the Study of Race and Law at the University of Virginia Law School announces the conference "Fifty Years after the Sit-Ins: Reflecting on the Role of Protest in Social Movements and Law Reform." It will be held at the Law School, January 28-30, 2010. Early bird registration closed December 15.

Among the scheduled events are the following panels:

The Sit-Ins

This panel will focus on the student sit-ins that were initiated on February 1, 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and spread across the south and nation. The panel will include law professors, historians and civil rights activists who were either personally involved in the sit-in movement or who have studied them. Questions may include what led to the sit-ins, what were their objectives and strategies, and what was their most direct impact.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin, University of Virginia School of Law
J. Gordon Hylton, Marquette University Law School
Brenda Saunders Hampden, Seton Hall University School of Law
Theodore C. Delaney, Washington & Lee University, History Dept.

Social and Legal Developments in the Domestic Sphere

This panel will examine social and legal reform movements in the United States during the last third of the twentieth century. Topics may include movements by ethnic groups other than African-Americans, as well as the women’s rights, gay rights, labor and anti-war movements. Panelists may also address legislative and doctrinal developments influenced by the sit-ins including state and federal civil rights laws, and constitutional law developments concerning, for example, police discretion, state action, substantive due process, equal protection, and free expression.

Taunya Banks, University of Maryland School of Law
Risa Goluboff, University of Virginia School of Law
Darren Hutchinson, American University Washington College of Law
Juan F. Perea, University of Florida Levin College of Law

The International Sphere

This panel will examine the relationship between international and domestic legal change. Panelists may explore how social movements and actors abroad influenced American constitutional and legislative developments, and how domestic social movements informed developments in international law and the law of other nations.

Carol Anderson, Emory University, African American Studies Dept.
Penelope Andrews, Valparaiso University School of Law
H. Timothy Lovelace, University of Virginia (Ph.D. candidate, History Dept.; J.D., M.A.)
Henry J. Richardson, III, Temple University Beasley School of Law

Keynoters include Julian Bond, University of Virginia Professor of History and NAACP Chairperson, and the Rev. Charles Sherrod, Albany State University Professor of Political Science and former SNCC Field Secretary

Hat tip: Legal Scholarship Blog