{"id":18024,"date":"2022-02-18T08:05:42","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/?p=18024"},"modified":"2022-02-18T08:02:06","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:02:06","slug":"introducing-the-center-for-the-study-of-black-life-and-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/news\/2022\/02\/18\/introducing-the-center-for-the-study-of-black-life-and-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitchell Hamline announces forthcoming Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mitchell Hamline School of Law is pleased to announce a forthcoming academic center focused on the legal system and Black lives. The formal launch of the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law<\/a> is expected this fall.<\/p>\n

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Professor T. Anansi Wilson<\/p><\/div>\n

The center will be a repository for both theory and policy on how laws and legislative proposals affect Black life, according to founding director and professor T. Anansi Wilson. It will also offer curriculum to both Mitchell Hamline students and the wider community; host speakers and events; and be a gathering place for community members and artists.<\/p>\n

Two online events will be held in coming weeks. The first, \u201cHonoring Black Life<\/a>,\u201d on February 21, will be a dialogue with several guests: Eric Jo Johnson, William WJ Lofton, Keitshawna Williams, Rena Karefa Johnson, and Hari Ziyad. The second, on April 5, will feature Professor Imani Perry, best-selling author of \u201cSouth to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation<\/a>,\u201d in conversation with Dr. Wilson, discussing the nexus between Black life and the law. Both events are open to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis center is unquestionably unique, if not historic, among law schools,\u201d said Wilson. \u201cWe\u2019ll be the first \u2013 but hopefully not the only \u2013 center specifically focused on the study of Black life and the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look across the country, you\u2019ll see a racial justice center here, a social justice center there, a race law and sexuality center here. But nothing as audacious enough to be specific about the needs of Black folk. About the lives of Black folk. About the deaths and striving of Black folk.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 10 years since the killing of Trayvon Martin, Wilson says, the racial reckoning across the country hasn\u2019t just been among white communities but Black communities, seeking deep study into how their lives and their ancestors\u2019 lives have been rendered by the law and the public imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re specifically naming and talking about a long array of racial violence and inequity that has been uniquely targeted at Black folks, and there\u2019s a hunger for that kind of study right now in the country.<\/p>\n

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