Derrick Bell to Provide Convocation Address
September 05, 2007
Derrick Bell, one of the most highly respected constitutional law professors in America, will be the guest speaker at Emmanuel College's Academic Convocation which will be held on September 13th. The event will be held in the Jean Yawkey Center gymnasium at 12:15 p.m.
An internationally-recognized legal scholar, civil rights activist, and writer, Bell is a visiting professor at New York University's law school where he teaches constitutional law. He holds the distinction of being the first African American to be tenured at Harvard Law School, as well as the only academic to relinquish a coveted tenured position to protest Harvard Law School's failure to appoint women of color.
Bell's work as an activist began directly out of law school when he was hired as a civil rights worker for the U.S. Justice Department and continued when Thurgood Marshall later recruited him to the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Bell has received six honorary degrees in the last decade and has authored a number of well-respected works, including the New York Times bestseller Faces at the Bottom of the Well and "Race, Racism and American Law" which is now considered a standard text of American law schools. His book Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth was required summer reading for first-year students at Emmanuel.