* Associate Professor of Law, The John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois. Special thanks to the entire National Steering Committee who, for almost two years, planned the first national meeting of the six regional People of Color Legal Scholarship Conferences and whose story is told here. Thanks also to the following: Dean Robert G. (Gil) Johnston, The John Marshall Law School, for his long-term support for the Midwestern People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference and for his generous support as host of the third and the eighth meetings of the Midwestern People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference and the first national meeting of the Regional Conferences; Professor Ralph Ruebner, chair of The John Marshall Law School Centennial Planning Committee, for supporting the national meeting as one of the important academic programs on the Centennial Activities Calendar and for troubleshooting problems as they arose; Brian Williams, my research assistant; Professor Linda S. Greene, my friend and role model in the academy, through whom I have learned so much that is of value; and the Boston College Third World Law Journal.
1 The eighth annual meeting of the Midwestern Region was co-hosted by John Marshall and Loyola-Chicago. The idea for a national meeting of all of the regional POC Conferences was taking shape simultaneously in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
2 As of July, 1999, Professor Greene is the Associate Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has earned this position through her extensive work in the area of faculty development, a great deal of which she did in connection with the creation and perfection of the POC Legal Scholarship “movement.”
3 According to Professor Taunya Lovell Banks of the University of Maryland Law School, the Northeast Corridor Collective was started by Professor Emma Coleman Jordan of the Georgetown University Law Center after the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) workshop on civil rights held in Chicago in 1986. During the workshop, a small group of women, most of whom were untenured, expressed the need for more support. The group, which predates the Midwestern POC Legal Scholarship Conference, is comprised primarily of African-American female law professors who teach at law schools in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. In addition, the Minority Section of the AALS was already in existence and provided a good model for encouraging all law professors of color to combine their efforts to advance the goals of diversity in hiring and scholarship within the legal academy.
4 Ironically perhaps, but not coincidentally, the 1989 Critical Race Conference was the first of its kind and was organized by Linda Greene.
5 Because of the demand for “diversity” in the absence of an adequate supply of diverse faculty, law faculty who are people of color are asked to perform a disproportionate amount of the work done for standing faculty committees, ad hoc faculty committees, student organizations, and individual students. This is one of the many important issues that the POC Conferences have helped their members learn to manage.
6 The Midwestern Region’s history includes the true story of how Jim Jones, impressed with Beverly Moran’s formal response to Gerald Torres’ paper about Native American folklore, recruited her on the spot to teach at Wisconsin. There are many similar success stories within every Regional Conference.
7 The regional groups are referred to as Conferences. Each year the Conferences have annual meetings, not “conferences” per se.
8 The suffix “Inc.” was added when the planning committee decided to become a non-profit corporation in 1994.
9 The 1997 meeting of the Midwestern Region was the eighth annual meeting and was co-sponsored by The John Marshall Law School and Loyola-Chicago, with Yvette Barksdale and Neil Williams sharing the on-site coordinating responsibilities.
10 Thanks again to Gwen Konigsfeld, JMLS faculty secretary, who did much of the legwork needed to plan this now legendary dinner at Restaurant LuLu on Market Street in San Francisco.
11 My regional affiliation is the Midwestern Region, but we all agreed that it was important for the chair of the Steering Committee to provide a region-neutral perspective in overseeing the planning process and content, a task that I worked scrupulously to accomplish.
12 Through the combined efforts of various people, three members from the Southwest Regional POC Conference were confirmed simultaneously as members of the National Steering Committee. Each was allowed to remain on the committee after everyone agreed that we would not make decisions by regional vote, but by majority vote.
13 The e-mail address, npcl-scholarship@law.howard.edu, will remain alive in my memory for years to come. I have saved over 1,000 e-mail messages that relate directly to the national meeting.
14 As general chair and site chair, I made brief comments to open the proceedings before introducing our host, Robert G. (Gil) Johnston, dean of The John Marshall Law School, who welcomed the People of Color Conference to The John Marshall Law School for the third time. Reggie Robinson made a few opening comments about the program in his capacity as Chair of the Program Committee. Upon the request of Juan Williams, our Keynote Speaker for the Opening Plenary (Plenary I), Linda Greene was allowed to introduce him. All of this took place during the first twenty minutes of the Thursday evening meeting. I represented the Steering Committee again on Saturday afternoon, during the Closing Plenary (Plenary V), and led discussions about making a report to the entire body and about various other topics raised by those present in a town hall meeting format.
15 One particularly meaningful compliment came from someone who said that the National POC meeting was the first time he had ever attended a conference (small “c”) without hearing a single grumble, complaint, or criticism from anyone during the sessions or during the free time—high praise indeed from a group of law professors.
16 In-kind contributions were donated primarily by the schools of our Steering Committee members and occurred in connection with their committee responsibilities. These contributions covered such costs as those resulting from conference calls, postage, long distance phone calls, computer services, stationery, and copying. JMLS, for example, as the host of the meeting which was to be one of its Centennial Celebration Academic Programs, incurred all of the above costs and more; the school paid for the design, printing and mailing of the brochure; for hundreds of hours of work by secretaries, its Conferences Services Department, and the Public Relations Office; for photography; and for a lavish opening night reception—complete with champagne and a “Taste of Chicago” theme.
17 This fee was waived in some cases upon request due to hardship.
The following list of law schools and their deans is intended to thank them once again for their generosity and support. Benefactors included: The John Marshall School of Law (Robert G. Johnston, Dean) and the Law School Admissions Council (Leo Romero, President and Kent Lollis, Associate Executive Director). Sponsors were: University of Alabama School of Law (Kenneth C. Randall, Dean), American University-Washington College of Law (Claudio Grossman, Dean), Boston College Law School (James S. Rogers, Interim Dean), Northern Illinois University School of Law (LeRoy Pernell, Dean), Ohio State University School of Law (Gregory Howard Williams, Dean), University of Oregon School of Law (Rennard Strickland, Dean), Quinnipiac College of Law (Neil H. Cogan, Dean), Seattle University School of Law (James E. Bond, Dean), South Texas College of Law (Frank T. Read, Dean), and University of Wisconsin (Kenneth B. Davis, Jr., Dean). Patrons included: Fordham University School of Law (John D. Feerick, Dean), Georgetown University Law Center (Judith Areen, Dean), University of San Diego (Daniel Rodriguez, Dean), Washburn University School of Law (James M. Concannon, Dean), George Washington University Law School (Michael K. Young, Dean), and Wayne State University School of Law (Joan Mahoney, Dean). Supporters were: University of Akron School of Law (Richard L. Aynes, Dean), Arizona State University College of Law (Patricia White, Dean), California Western School of Law (Steven Ray Smith, Dean), Georgia State University College of Law (Janice C. Griffith, Dean), Hofstra University Law School (Stuart Rabinowitz, Dean), University of Houston Law Center (Stephen Thomas Zamora, Dean), University of Michigan Law School (Jeffrey S. Lehman, Dean), William Mitchell College of Law (Harry Haynsworth, President and Dean), University of Nebraska College of Law (Nancy B. Rapaport, Dean), Notre Dame Law School (David T. Link, Dean), Nova Southeastern University (Joseph D. Harbaugh), Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law (Peter G. Glenn, Dean), Rutgers University School of Law-Camden (Rayman L. Solomon, Dean), University of Southern California (Scott Bice, Dean), Suffolk University Law School (John E. Fenton, Jr., Dean), Syracuse University College of Law (Dan Braveman, Dean), University of Tennessee College of Law (Thomas C. Galligan, Jr., Dean), Texas Wesleyan University (Frank K. Walwer, Dean), Western New England School of Law (Donald J. Dunn, Dean), and Tulane University School of Law (Edward F. Sherman, Dean).
18 We will have helped each region do what Linda Greene stated early on was her primary objective when she created the prototype in the Midwest: “to work toward positive financial independence through emancipatory politics.”
19 Where the work would be published depended upon whether the work had been presented during a plenary session or as a work-in-progress.
20 Several deans of color made pledges at the highest level of giving ($1,500 or more): Dean LeRoy Pernell (Northern Illinois), Dean Gregory Williams (Ohio State), Dean Daniel Rodriguez (San Diego), and Dean Alice Bullock (Howard), who gave the highest amount at $2,500. Thanks again.
21 Later, it was suggested and agreed to that the associate deans of color would be invited to attend this meeting as well.
22 In 1999, we received mentions by the following for the National Meeting: Chicago Lawyer Magazine, May issue, feature article with photo; Chicago Lawyer Magazine, May issue, second photo in a different article; Shadow Broadcast, radio interview; The National Law Journal, Apr. 19 issue, feature article with photo; Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, Feb. 26 issue, article; Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, May 20 issue, front page photo; New Voice of New York, Mar. 25 issue, article; Up & Coming, Mar. 1–7 issue; Up & Coming, Apr. 19–25 issue, article and event photos; and Near West Gazette, Mar. 4, column mention.
We received media inquiries from the following: The Wall Street Journal; Time; The Today Show; WBBM-TV, Chicago Affiliate, Channel 2; and BET Weekend Magazine.
After submitting our press kit to Today’s Chicago Woman, the publication nominated me for its annual poll of “100 Women Making a Difference,” which was published in its July, 1999 issue.