This symposium is a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The passage of the Act marked the beginning of a new era of American public life. At the time it was enacted, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was perceived by many to be the codified culmination of decades of sustained effort to provide equal opportunity for women and racial minorities. To its supporters, the Act embodied a promise to end systemic, institutional, and private barriers to women and racial minorities’ full and fair inclusion in the public and economic life of the nation.
The symposium offers an examination of that promise from the vantage point of 2014. Calling together preeminent scholars committed to a diverse set of perspectives and methodologies, the symposium interrogates the significance, relevance and legacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, fifty years later.
Welcome and Introduction
Professor Meredith Render, Associate Professor of Law, The University of Alabama School of Law
David Harris, Editor-in- Chief, Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review
Session I
The Civil Rights Act at 50: An Examination of Title VI I’s Ebb and Flow
Professor Trina Jones
Duke University School of Law
Introduction: Bonnie Sowell, The University of Alabama School of Law
Session II
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Law of Property
Professor Al Brophy, University of North Carolina School of Law
Introduction: Chris Richard, The University of Alabama School of Law
Session III
Democracy and Coercion: Race and the Neo-Conservative Backlash
Professor Anthony Cook Georgetown University Law Center
Introduction: Todd Pancieria, The University of Alabama School of Law
Session IV – Lunch and Keynote Speaker
Should Black Women Lean in? What Sheryl Sandberg Doesn’t Understand
Professor Dorothy Brown Emory University School of Law
Introduction: Tiffany Ray, The University of Alabama School of Law
Session V
Organizational Complexity and the Quest for Civil Rights
Gregory Parks
Wake Forest University School of Law
Introduction: Eric Coleman, The University of Alabama School of Law
Session VI
Language Rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964: The Case for Juror Language Accommodation Jasmine Rose Gonzoles
University of Pittsburgh School of Law
Introduction: Katherine Reeves, The University of Alabama School of Law
