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[PAST EVENT] Martin Luther King Day Presentation: Martin Luther King, Jr., and Civil Disobedience
January 19, 2016
12:50pm - 1:50pm
When is it morally acceptable to engage in a public and conscientious violation of the law? The Civil Rights Movement often used civil disobedience to challenge Jim Crow laws, including sit-ins, violating court orders, and submission to jail sentences to protest racial injustice in the U.S.
In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the foundational documents of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., engaged his readers on the moral basis for civil disobedience and what makes a law just or unjust. Law School Dean Davison M. Douglas's talk will consider the impact of Dr. King's work at the time and the lessons we can draw from it today.
About Dean Douglas
One of the nation's leading constitutional historians, Davison M. Douglas is the author or editor of seven books, including Jim Crow Moves North: The Battle over Northern School Segregation, 1865-1954 (Cambridge University Press), Redefining Equality (Oxford University Press, with Neal Devins), and Reading, Writing and Race: The Desegregation of the Charlotte Schools (University of North Carolina Press). He also has published articles in the nation's leading law reviews and has lectured on American constitutional law and history at universities throughout the United States, as well as in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe.
Dean Douglas held a number of leadership positions at the Law School prior to his service as dean. From 1997 until 2004 he was Director of William & Mary's nationally acclaimed Institute of Bill of Rights Law. In 2005 he founded the Law School's Election Law Program, which he directed until 2008.
In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, one of the foundational documents of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., engaged his readers on the moral basis for civil disobedience and what makes a law just or unjust. Law School Dean Davison M. Douglas's talk will consider the impact of Dr. King's work at the time and the lessons we can draw from it today.
About Dean Douglas
One of the nation's leading constitutional historians, Davison M. Douglas is the author or editor of seven books, including Jim Crow Moves North: The Battle over Northern School Segregation, 1865-1954 (Cambridge University Press), Redefining Equality (Oxford University Press, with Neal Devins), and Reading, Writing and Race: The Desegregation of the Charlotte Schools (University of North Carolina Press). He also has published articles in the nation's leading law reviews and has lectured on American constitutional law and history at universities throughout the United States, as well as in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe.
Dean Douglas held a number of leadership positions at the Law School prior to his service as dean. From 1997 until 2004 he was Director of William & Mary's nationally acclaimed Institute of Bill of Rights Law. In 2005 he founded the Law School's Election Law Program, which he directed until 2008.
Contact
Law School Communications Office, (757) 221-1840 or [[w|jpwelc]]