Winston-Salem State University News October 16, 2014 Internationally Known Attorney to Lecture at WSSU Oct. 30 Theodore M. Shaw, the inaugural Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights at UNC-Chapel Hill, will deliver this year's J. Alston Atkins Memorial Lecture in Constitutional Law at Winston-Salem State University (WSSU). The lecture will be Thursday, October 30, at 3:30 p.m. in the Donald J. Reaves Student Activity Center on the university campus. Sponsored by the law firm of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, the event is free and open to the public. The lecture will be preceded by a roundtable on "Quality Education as a Constitutional Right" at 1 p.m. also in the Reaves Center. The roundtable will feature David Dennis, director of the Southern Initiative of the Algebra Project, Dr. Beverly Emory, superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System, and Dr. Denise Pearson, senior associate dean and professor of education at WSSU. "This year's lecture and symposium highlights the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Freedom Summer, two pivotal events that fundamentally changed the contours of American democracy," said Dr. Corey D. B. Walker, dean of the College of Arts, Science, Business and Education and the John W. and Anna Hodgin Hanes Professor of the Humanities at WSSU. "It is an honor to host Ted Shaw and David Dennis as part of this year's program. As a key architect in recent civil rights litigation, Ted Shaw has worked tirelessly to advance the cause of equity and inclusion in society. David Dennis is a longtime organizer and activist for human dignity stemming from his days as a Freedom Rider and organizer in Mississippi in the 1960s to his ongoing work as a lawyer and educator. Both of these individuals are intimately connected with the events of fifty years ago and the lasting impact they have had on our society and world." Shaw was named the second director of the Center for Civil Rights at UNC-Chapel Hill in July of this year, a position first held by the late Julius Chambers. Previously, Shaw served as director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) from 2004 until 2008. He joined the LDF in 1982 and served as an attorney there for 23 years. He also has been a professor at Columbia University Law School, where he earned his law degree, and he started his career as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. At LDF, Shaw took on the task of litigating education, employment, voting rights, housing, police misconduct, capital punishment and other civil rights cases in trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the years, he has also testified before the U.S. Congress and his work has taken him to South Africa to train lawyers after the post-apartheid constitution came into being. Shaw also has worked closely with the Roma community to achieve civil rights in Eastern Europe and was counsel for the African American students in the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions cased heard by the Supreme Court in 2003. He also played a key role in initiating the review of Michigan Law School's admissions policies and served on committees that adopted the plan that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Atkins Memorial Lecture in Constitutional Law is named in honor of J. Alston (Jack) Atkins, the son of WSSU founder Simon Green Atkins and a 1922 honor graduate of Yale Law School. A prominent civil rights attorney and advocate, Atkins filed a series of lawsuit to eliminate the racially segregated school system in Forsyth County. While he did not win the cases, they became the catalyst for a law suit which ultimately did lead to the desegregation of the local schools. In 1970, he filed a suit that was settled 15 years later and paved the way for more substantial support of the historically Black member institutions of the University of North Carolina system. Atkins was deceased by the time of the settlement, but he was remembered in the agreement with the establishment of a constitutional law lecture series in his name at WSSU. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-702-5854 Skype: sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree NW Suite 200 Atlanta,GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (LYRASIS) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/2014meeting-form.html for the October 26-28, 2014 HBCU Library Alliance 6th Membership Meeting in Atlanta GA!