Center for the Study of Race and Law

About the Program

Lawyers cannot fully understand the American legal landscape without studying the impact of race. The Law School founded the Center for the Study of Race and Law in 2003 to provide opportunities for students, scholars, practitioners and community members to examine and exchange ideas related to race and law through lectures, symposia and scholarship. The center also coordinates with the Law School to offer a concentration of courses on race and law, and serves as a resource for faculty whose teaching or scholarship addresses subjects related to race.

Does Cash Bail Deter Misconduct?

Megan T. Stevenson

Aurelie Ouss

Courts routinely use low cash bail as a financial incentive to ensure that released defendants appear in court and abstain from crime. This can create...

Remembering: The Constitution and Federally Funded Apartheid

Joy Milligan

For much of the twentieth century, the U.S. government authorized and invested heavily in segregation and racial inequality. Often it did so through...

Algorithmic Risk Assessment in the Hands of Humans

Megan T. Stevenson

Jennifer L. Doleac

We evaluate the impacts of adopting algorithmic risk assessments as an aid to judicial discretion in felony sentencing. We find that judges' decisions...

Dynamic Property Taxes and Racial Gentrification

Andrew Hayashi

Many jurisdictions determine real property taxes based on a combination of current market values and the recent history of market values, introducing...

Why the Equal Rights Amendment Would Endanger Women’s Equality: Lessons from Colorblind Constitutionalism

Kim Forde-Mazrui

The purpose of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to those who drafted it and those who worked for nearly a century to see it ratified, is women’s...

For Cause: Rethinking Racial Exclusion and the American Jury

Thomas Frampton

Peremptory strikes, and criticism of the permissive constitutional framework regulating them, have dominated the scholarship on race and the jury for...

Faculty Director

Kimberly J. Robinson

Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law

Professor of Education, School of Education and Human Development

Professor of Law, Education and Public Policy, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

Director, Education Rights Institute

Director, Center for the Study of Race and Law

Resident Faculty

Barbara E. Armacost

Criminal procedure, civil rights litigation, torts and constitutional law

Served as attorney adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice
Frequently provides commentary on Supreme Court decisions (Supreme Court Roundup)
Spent eight months working at a mission hospital in Haiti before pursuing her J.D. Her life as a nurse and theologian shaped her approach to law teaching and scholarship.

Josh Bowers

Criminal procedure and criminal defense law

Clerked for Judge Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Practiced criminal defense as an associate for Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason & Silberberg and as staff attorney for the Bronx Defenders
Scholarship often focuses on fairness for the accused in the legal system (Faculty Q&A)

Darryl K. Brown

Criminal law, evidence and procedure

Clerked for then-Chief Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Worked as an assistant public defender, a source of inspiration for his later scholarship explaining how criminal law works (Scholarship Profile)
Has explored over-criminalization in the justice system (Faculty Q&A)
Author of the book "Free Market Criminal Justice: How Democracy and Laissez Faire Undermine the Rule of Law"

Naomi R. Cahn

Family law, trusts and estates, feminist jurisprudence, reproductive technology, and aging and the law

Her books include “Red Families v. Blue Families,” “Homeward Bound” and “Unequal Family Lives,” as well as casebooks in family law and trusts and estates
Serves as the reporter for the Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Economic Rights of Unmarried Cohabitants, and a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and the American Law Institute
Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and New Yorker, and she has appeared on numerous media outlets, including NPR and MSNBC
From 2002-04, Cahn was on leave in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and researched gender-based violence

Kevin Cope

Law and economics, international relations, international law, immigration and refugee law, judging

Ph.D. candidate in political science, University of Michigan (expected 2019)
Created the first judicial ideology measure covering every Article III judge in the federal judiciary
Currently working to develop a method that could help international treaty negotiators achieve global-welfare-increasing cooperation
Clerked for three federal judges, including Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and practiced government enforcement litigation law in Washington, D.C., with Skadden, Arps

Anne M. Coughlin

Criminal law, feminist jurisprudence and women's issues

Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. and Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Co-authored the casebook "Criminal Law: Cases and Materials"
In 2012 Coughlin and a group of law students using the moniker "The Molly Pitcher Project" helped file a lawsuit on behalf of military women seeking to overturn the combat exclusion. (Story)

Michael Doran

Tax policy, legislative process and legal ethics

Former partner at Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C., practicing federal tax and federal pension law
Served twice in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department
Recent scholarship challenges conventional theory of executive compensation, largesse of tax cuts for wealthiest Americans

Risa Goluboff

Civil rights, constitutional history and constitutional law

Goluboff, the 12th dean at UVA Law, is the first woman to lead the school
Goluboff, who has a Ph.D. in history from Princeton, also is a history professor at UVA
Won the 2010 Order of the Coif Biennial Book Award and the 2008 James Willard Hurst Prize for her first book, "The Lost Promise of Civil Rights" (Story)
Received a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Constitutional Studies and a 2012 Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies to support her work on the demise of vagrancy laws as part of the social transformations of the 1960s. (Story)

Kim Forde-Mazrui

Race and law, constitutional law, employment discrimination

Clerked for Judge Cornelia G. Kennedy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Served for seven years as inaugural director of the UVA Center for the Study of Race and Law
Scholarship focuses on equal protection, especially involving race and sexual orientation (Faculty Q&A)

Thomas Frampton

Criminal law, civil rights, race

Clerked for Judge Diane Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Judge Jack Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York
Worked as a trial attorney and special litigation attorney for the Orleans Public Defenders
Recent scholarship has focused on legal history, race and criminal juries

Jennifer L. Givens

Post-conviction relief, innocence, death-penalty cases

Worked as an assistant federal defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Served as senior staff attorney with the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center, where she represented death-sentenced inmates in state and federal post-conviction proceedings
Secured clemency for a severely mentally ill client and won a life sentence for an intellectually disabled client, both of whom were sentenced to death in Virginia

Rachel Harmon

Criminal law, criminal procedure, policing and civil rights

Prosecuted federal civil rights crimes for the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section of the Department of Justice, including hate crimes and official misconduct cases, many of which involved excessive force or sexual abuse by police officers.
Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
M.Sc. in political theory and M.Sc. in political sociology, London School of Economics
Harmon's scholarship focuses on the legal regulation of the police and mechanisms for improving policing. (Scholarship Profile)

Deborah Hellman

Affirmative action and equal protection, constitutional law and theory

Awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers in 1999
Author of the book "When Is Discrimination Wrong?"
Hellman's work primarily focuses on discrimination and equality. In addition, she writes about the constitutionality of campaign finance laws and the obligations of professional roles, especially in the context of clinical medical research. (Scholarship Profile | Faculty Q&A)

Alex M. Johnson Jr.

Contracts, property and real estate; critical race theory

Former Dean the University of Minnesota Law School
Lectures and writes on the LSAT and academic standards, and has argued both in favor of the continued use of affirmative action in law school admittance as well as the continued use of the LSAT as an objective measure for considering students (Faculty Q&A)
Served as chair of the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admissions Council and the LSAC's Test, Development and Research, and Minority Affairs Standing Committees

John T. Monahan

Social science in law, mental health law, forensic psychiatry

Ph.D. in psychology, Indiana University
Directed two large research projects in the area of mental health law, authored or edited more than a dozen books and has written more than 200 articles and chapters. His book, "Social Science in Law: Cases and Materials," co-authored with Professor Emeritus Larry Walker, was a seminal work in the field.
Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a former fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
Monahan's work has been cited frequently by courts, including the California Supreme Court in the landmark Tarasoff v. Regents, and the U.S. Supreme Court in Barefoot v. Estelle, in which he was referred to as "the leading thinker" on the issue of violence risk assessment. (Faculty Q&A)

Kimberly J. Robinson

Education law, Civil rights, Affirmative action, Desegregation and integration, Race, Sexual discrimination and harrassment

Scholarship proposes novel law and policy solutions that advance educational equity and help to close opportunity and achievement gaps
Editor of the book “A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy”
Co-editor with Charles J. Ogletree Jr. of “The Enduring Legacy of Rodriguez: Creating New Pathways for Equal Educational Opportunity” (Harvard Education Press, 2015)
Provided legal advice on race, sex and disability discrimination in education as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel and on school finance litigation as an attorney with Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells)
Clerked for Judge James R. Browning on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

George Rutherglen

Employment discrimination, civil rights and admiralty, civil procedure and international civil litigation

Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justices William O. Douglas and John Paul Stevens, and forJudge J. Clifford Wallace of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Chaired the advisory committee on Fourth Circuit Rules
Rutherglen's book, "Civil Rights in the Shadow of Slavery," discusses the dynamics of legislative and judicial enforcement over the entire history of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. (Story)

Nelson Camilo Sánchez León

International human rights law, Inter-American human rights system, business and human rights, transitional justice

Director of the International Human Rights Clinic, co-director of the Human Rights Program and director of the Human Rights Study Project
Worked as research director of the Center for the Study of Law, Justice, and Society (Dejusticia)
Former associate professor of law at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Served with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Colombian Commission of Jurists

Richard C. Schragger

Separation of church and state, property, local government and land use

M.A. in legal theory, University College London
Clerked for then-Chief Judge Dolores Sloviter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Authored articles on the establishment clause and local regulation of religion, the role of cities in a federal system, local recognition of same-sex marriage, takings law and economic development, and the history of the anti-chain store movement. (Faculty Q&A)

Gregg Strauss

Domestic relations and family law

Ph.D. in philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Recent scholarship has revolved around defining a theory behind marriage, including why the state is involved in licensing marriages at all
Teaches Family Law and Torts

Mila Versteeg

Comparative law and human rights

D.Phil. in socio-legal studies, Oxford University
Has written on the constitutions of nations, including the declining influence of the U.S. Constitution (Story)
Named a 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellow, which provided her with a $200,000 award to expand her research into the world's constitutions to better understand how constitutional rights are enforced in different countries. (More)
Gained human rights experience working at the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute in Turin and at the Southern Africa Litigation Centre in Johannesburg

Ann Woolhandler

Federal court system and civil procedure

Worked for a decade as a civil rights lawyer in Louisiana
Scholarly interests involve key doctrinal features of the law of federal courts

Joy Milligan

Civil rights, constitutional law, legal history, law and inequality

Studies the intersection of law and inequality, with a particular focus on race-based economic inequality
Before entering academia, Milligan practiced civil rights law at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., where she was a Skadden Fellow, and clerked for Judge A. Wallace Tashima of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Earned a Ph.D. in jurisprudence and social policy from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on race, politics and legal history

Craig Konnoth

Health policy, LGBTQ rights

Work focuses on how medicine and medical discourse can be reconfigured to work with law to produce civil rights and justice
Went to law school to do LGBTQ rights work, and continues to file briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in major cases
As deputy solicitor general of California with a docket focused on the U.S. Supreme Court, he has been involved in a broad range of litigation

Rachel Bayefsky

Federal courts, constitutional law, civil procedure, legal theory

Clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
Former lecturer and Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School
Practiced appellate litigation
Scholarship often focuses on legal institutions’ treatment of intangible harms such as stigma and disrespect

Chinh Q. Le

Legal aid, civil rights, impact litigation

Former legal director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, the oldest and largest general civil legal services program in the nation’s capital
Oversaw roughly 60 lawyers and a dozen legal assistants in leading Legal Aid’s individual client representation, systemic appellate and policy advocacy, and impact litigation across all practice areas
Former director of the division on civil rights in the office of the New Jersey attorney general
Former assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc., where he began his career as a Skadden Fellow after law school

Moira O'Neill

Teaches Land Use Law, Local and State Government Law, and Community Development Planning
Leads the Comprehensive Assessment of Land Use Entitlements Study (CALES), a collaborative study that joins legal and planning scholars and students to understand how land use regulations influence residential development patterns
O’Neill, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is also collaborating with UCLA scholars to explore fair housing questions

Other Faculty

Michael G. Collins

Civil procedure, conflict of laws, evidence

M.A. in classics, Stanford University
Scholarship focuses on jurisdiction and history of the federal courts
Co-author of casebooks on transnational litigation, federal courts, and civil procedure
Recipient of UVA All-University Teaching Award, 2013

Mark Langlet

Robin Leiter-White

Rob Poggenklass

Kimberly J. Robinson

Education law, Civil rights, Affirmative action, Desegregation and integration, Race, Sexual discrimination and harrassment

Scholarship proposes novel law and policy solutions that advance educational equity and help to close opportunity and achievement gaps
Editor of the book “A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy”
Co-editor with Charles J. Ogletree Jr. of “The Enduring Legacy of Rodriguez: Creating New Pathways for Equal Educational Opportunity” (Harvard Education Press, 2015)
Provided legal advice on race, sex and disability discrimination in education as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Education Office of the General Counsel and on school finance litigation as an attorney with Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells)
Clerked for Judge James R. Browning on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Bertrall Ross

Constitutional law, election law, constitutional theory, legislation and statutory interpretation

M.Sc., London School of Economics (Marshall Scholar), and M.P.A., Princeton
Received the Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction at UC Berkeley School of Law (2021)
Serves on Administrative Conference of the United States, and President Biden’s Commission on Supreme Court Reform
Clerked for Judge Dorothy Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama

Curriculum

Virginia offers courses in civil rights and anti-discrimination law, but equally important is a wide array of courses in constitutional law and history. These offerings reflect the ways in which the struggle for civil rights shaped — and continues to shape — our country and institutions.

Each year the Center for the Study of Race and Law brings a visiting professor to teach a short course. Past visitors include:

Richard Banks, Stanford Law School
Dorothy Brown, Emory Law School
Devon Carbado, UCLA School of Law
Mohammad Fadel, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Adrienne Davis, Washington University in St. Louis
Michael Klarman, Harvard Law School
Mari Matsuda, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law

The following is a list of courses offered during the current and two previous academic years. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2020-21 is coded (21), 2021-22 is coded (22) and 2022-23 is coded (23). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.

Courses and Seminars

American Legal History Seminar (23)

Asian Americans and the Law (23)

Center for Race and Law Short Course: Islam, Race and the Law in the Americas (SC) (22)

Civil Rights and Antidiscrimination Law (23)

Civil Rights Litigation (21,22,23)

Constitutional Law II: Poverty (21,22,23)

Criminal Adjudication (21,22,23)

Criminal Investigation (21,22,23)

Criminal Procedure Survey (21,22,23)

Critical Race Theory (23)

Datafication, Automation and Inequality (SC) (23)

Designing Democracy: Participation (23)

Education Law Survey (21,22,23)

Employment Discrimination (21,22,23)

Family Law (21,22,23)

Identity, Law and Politics Seminar (22)

Immigration Law (21,22,23)

Immigration Law and Policy (21,22,23)

Immigration Law and Policy: Business and Family (21,22,23)

International Human Rights Law (21,22,23)

Land Use Law (21,22,23)

Latinos and the Law (SC) (21)

Law and Inequality Colloquium (23)

Law of Place and Place of Law (21)

Law, Inequality and Education Reform (21,22)

Native American Law (21)

Parental Choice in K-12 Education (SC) (23)

Poverty in Law, Literature and Culture (21,23)

Poverty Law, Advocacy and Policy (22,23)

Race and Criminal Justice (21,22,23)

Race and Slavery on UVA’s North Grounds (23)

Race, Education and Opportunity (21,22,23)

Race, Law and Democracy (SC) (21)

Racial Ambiguity Blues (21)

Racial Justice and Law (21,22,23)

Regulation of the Political Process (21,22,23)

Reparations: Identity, Law and Politics (23)

Reproductive Rights and Justice (SC) (21)

Social Science in Law (21,22,23)

Urban Law and Policy (23)

Clinics

Civil Rights Clinic (YR) (21,22,23)
International Human Rights Law Clinic (YR) (21,22,23)
Project for Informed Reform Clinic (YR) (22,23)

Exploring Race Through Discussion

The Center for the Study of Race and Law coordinates and promotes the substantial array of existing Law School programs on race and law, and enhances these offerings by sponsoring additional programs, often in partnership with interested student organizations.

UVA Law honored the legacy of its first Black student, Gregory Swanson ’51, with a ceremony and the creation of the Gregory H. Swanson Award, which recognizes students with traits that Swanson embodied, including a commitment to justice within the community.

UVA history professor John Mason and UVA Law vice dean Leslie Kendrick ’06 were among those to discuss the events surrounding the Aug. 11-12 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. Throughout the year at UVA Law in various fora, community members gathered to understand the violent rallies and how to move forward, and promote allyship with the Black Law Students Association.

UCLA law professor Cheryl Harris, an expert in critical race theory, recently discussed how race and class became competing legal arguments for addressing inequality.

Civil rights pioneer Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, discussed the fight for racial and social justice in the South during the 1960s and 1970s, and challenges that remain today.

H. Timothy Lovelace, an Indiana University law professor and 2006 UVA Law graduate, recently spoke in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Other recent center-sponsored events include:

Community MLK Celebration with Justice John Charles Thomas ’75

A Constitutional History of the Long 1960s, with Professor Risa Goluboff

“Must Government Ignore Racial Inequality?” with Professor Kim Forde-Mazrui

“Race, Inequality and the Future of Multiracial Politics,” with Georgetown law professor Sheryll Cashin

“Affirmative Action Revisited: Fisher v. University of Texas,” Ward Connerly, the founder and president of the American Civil Rights Institute, and UVA law professor Kim Forde-Mazrui on the legality of affirmative action in higher education

“Felony Disenfranchisement,” a town-hall meeting sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Black Law Students Association and the UVA Law Black Law Students Association

“Bending Toward Justice: The Struggle for Civil Rights Today,” with Mary Bauer ’90, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, part of Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances

“The Future of the Voting Rights Act: A Discussion About Shelby County v. Holder and What It Means for America,” with UVA Law professor Risa Goluboff and Ridge Schuyler, former Virginia counsel for Obama for America

“Does Reparations Have a Future? Rethinking Racial Justice in a ‘Color-Blind’ Era,” a multidisciplinary symposium on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War featuring UVA Law professor Kim Forde-Mazrui

“Representing Children: Dealing With Racial Inequalities in Schools and in the Juvenile Justice System,” with Robert Schwartz, co-founder and executive director of the Juvenile Law Center

“The Final Days of Martin Luther King Jr.,” (with civil rights leader and then-UVA professor Julian Bond and Michael Cody ’61) and “What We Can Learn About the Law From the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” (with two UVA law professors) were part of a series of events in January 2012 remembering King’s legacy

“Increasing Diversity Within the Legal Profession,” a conference featuring lectures by NAACP General Counsel Kim Keenan ’87 and Virginia Supreme Court Justices S. Bernard Goodwyn ’86 and Cleo Powell ’82

Annual Reports on Center Activities

Recent Events

Inside Sines v. Kessler: A Case Holding White Supremacists Accountable

Story | Jan. 25, 2022

A panel will explore a successful civil lawsuit against organizers, promoters and participants in the 2017 Unite the Right rally. At the conclusion of the litigation Nov. 23, a jury found the defendants liable under Virginia law, for both civil conspiracy and racial, religious and ethnic harassment. During the event, the 2022 Gregory H. Swanson Award will be presented. Named after UVA’s first Black student, the award recognizes UVA law students who demonstrate courage, perseverance and a commitment to justice.

From the Equal Rights Amendment to Black Lives Matter: Reflecting on Intersectional Struggles for Equality

Story | Jan. 29, 2021

This virtual symposium will explore the intersectional nature of race and sex (including LGBTQ+) equality movements, the contributions of activists with intersectional identities, and the potential role of intersectional theories to inform future efforts to advance race and sex equality. The symposium will culminate in a keynote speech by Elaine R. Jones ’70 at 1:50 p.m. Jones is the first Black woman to graduate from UVA Law School — 50 years ago — and the first woman to serve as director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. During the event, the 2021 Gregory H. Swanson Award will be presented. Named after UVA’s first Black student, the award recognizes UVA law students who demonstrate courage, perseverance and a commitment to justice.

Healing Hate: A Public Health Perspective on Civil Rights in America

Story | Jan. 30-31, 2020

Hosted by the University of Virginia Schools of Law, Nursing and Medicine, this conference focused on the impact of racial and ethnic discrimination in driving public health disparities. The program brought together scholars, clinicians, policymakers and community leaders to take a public health approach in treating and reducing violence, disease and injury due to racism, hate speech, crimes and violence.

At the conclusion of the event, participants announced a civil rights framework to combat health disparities, and generated and disseminated evidenced-based proposals and tools aimed at eliminating health disparities.

“Biased,” With Jennifer Eberhardt

Story | Jan. 21, 2020

Jennifer Eberhardt, a social psychologist at Stanford University, was the featured speaker at the Law School’s Community MLK Celebration event. She discussed her 2019 book “Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do.” Eberhardt is a 2014 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was named one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers.

During the event, Dean Risa Goluboff presented the 2020 Gregory H. Swanson Award. Named after UVA and UVA Law’s first black student, the award recognizes students who demonstrate a commitment to justice within the community.

The Hard Work of Social Justice: A Conversation With Women of August 11-12

Jan. 31 2019

This event discussed the work of social justice activism focusing on Aug. 11 and 12, 2017, and on women who countered the terrorism of those days before, then and since. The event features the film, “Charlottesville,” which documents the events leading up to and including Aug.11-12. The second half was a panel discussion with women activists, followed by participation from the audience.

During the event, the Law School presented the annual Gregory H. Swanson Award, given to a law student who exemplifies “courage, perseverance and a commitment to justice.”

One Year After Charlottesville: Replacing the Resurgence of Racism With Reconciliation

Story | Sept. 27-28, 2018

This conference examined the United States' history of racism, racial violence and white supremacy, and where it stands today through the lens of empirical critical race theory. Pulitzer Prize winner James Forman Jr. headlined the conference. It was sponsored by UVA Law, the school’s Center for the Study of Race and Law, the Carter G. Woodson Institute and the Virginia Law Review, and marked the one-year anniversary of the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

“We’re trying to take back the discourse so it’s no longer about giving a voice to white supremacy and nationalism,” said Professor Dayna Bowen Matthew ’87, an organizer of the event. “We’re trying to speak for and with people who have been harmed and silenced by hate in all its manifestations.”

Center for the Study of Race and Law

Curriculum

Courses and Seminars

Clinics

Exploring Race Through Discussion

Annual Reports on Center Activities

Law School Student Organizations

Diversity, Equity and Belonging at UVA Law

University Research Centers

Recent Events

Inside Sines v. Kessler: A Case Holding White Supremacists Accountable

Story | Jan. 25, 2022

From the Equal Rights Amendment to Black Lives Matter: Reflecting on Intersectional Struggles for Equality

Story | Jan. 29, 2021

Healing Hate: A Public Health Perspective on Civil Rights in America

Story | Jan. 30-31, 2020

“Biased,” With Jennifer Eberhardt

Story | Jan. 21, 2020

The Hard Work of Social Justice: A Conversation With Women of August 11-12

Jan. 31 2019

One Year After Charlottesville: Replacing the Resurgence of Racism With Reconciliation

Story | Sept. 27-28, 2018