TOMIKO BROWN-NAGIN is Dean of Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and Professor of History at Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, she was appointed chair of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society, and of the American Law Institute, and a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. Her previous book, Courage to Dissent won the Bancroft Prize in 2011. She frequently appears as a commentator in media. She lives in Boston with her family.
WATCH: Video recording of the 37th Annual Nathanson Memorial Lecture here
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Dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin will discuss her book Civil Rights Queen, the first major biography of Constance Baker Motley—a legendary crusader for civil rights—that provides a masterful and eye-opening account of the twin struggles for racial and gender equality in twentieth-century America
Born to an aspirational working-class family during the Great Depression, Constance Baker Motley was expected to make a career as a hairdresser. Instead, she earned a law degree and used it to transform American society. For many years the only woman member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s legal team, Motley helped litigate Brown v. Board of Education, defended Martin Luther King in Birmingham and played a critical role in vanquishing Jim Crow laws throughout the South. During a second act, she broke barriers in politics by becoming the first woman elected borough president of Manhattan and the first black woman elected to the New York State Senate. In a third act that capped her career, she was the first black woman appointed to the federal judiciary, becoming both a symbol of change in the American power structure and a part of it—an outsider within the system that she had long fought.
This deeply researched and incisive examination of gender, race, and class tells the inspiring story of a remarkable American life and of a tumultuous period of social change. Against the backdrop of Motley’s pathbreaking life, Tomiko Brown-Nagin ponders some of our most timeless and urgent questions: How do historically marginalized people access the corridors of power? How does access to power shape individuals committed to social justice? And what is the price of the ticket?
USD Students are invited to a Watch Party in the Grace Courtroom to view the lecture. A grab-n-go lunch will be provided after the lecture. Students, please use this link to register for the Watch Party and lunch order form.
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