Founded in 2015, Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review [“HCR”] is a student-managed, faculty-supervised law review published by the Howard University School of Law. HCR focuses on issues related to human rights, civil rights, and international law.
HCR holds an annual Symposium related to these issues, with the keynote speaker giving the C. Clyde Ferguson Jr. Lecture. HCR publishes an annual volume of the lectures given at the Symposium, together with articles from eminent scholars and practitioners, a student Note written by the winner of the Pauli Murray Prize, a nationwide competition for the best student Note on human and civil rights.
Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review editorial board members, staff, and faculty advisors, 2016-2017.
C. Clyde Ferguson Lecture & Symposium
Each year, Howard University School of Law hosts the C. Clyde Ferguson Jr. Lecture, which is the keynote speech for HCR’s annual Symposium. The 2016-2017 topic for the Ferguson Lecture and Symposium was: Black Economic Empowerment: Racial Wealth Disparities
Biography of C. Clyde Ferguson
The C. Clyde Ferguson Jr. Lecture is in honor of C. Clyde Ferguson Jr., former dean of the Howard University School of Law and a former distinguished professor of law at Rutgers University Law School. At the time of his death in 1983, he was the Henry L. Stimson Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Ferguson’s dedication to human rights issues throughout his distinguished career is well-known.
Ferguson was general counsel to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, special legal advisor to Governor Adlai Stevenson, permanent representative to the United Nations, deputy assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, and United States Ambassador to Uganda. In 1967, he was one of the drafters of the UNESCO Statement on Race. Ferguson held honorary doctorate of law degrees from Rutgers University and Williams College. He was the author of five books and numerous legal and scholarly articles.
The Pauli Murray Prize
The Howard Human and Civil Rights Law Review awards the Pauli Murray Prize each year to the winner of a nationwide competition for the best student Note on human and civil rights. The 2015-2016 award winner was Ms. Maleaha Brown. The 2016-2017 award winner is Ms. Tiffany Cebrun.
Biography of Pauline [“Pauli”] Murray
The Pauli Murray Prize is in honor of Pauline “Pauli” Murray who was a 1944 graduate and valedictorian of the Howard University School of Law. She went on to become a pivotal figure in civil rights history. Murray challenged racism, sexism, intolerance, and violence, using the law and the written word. Known for her courage, intensity, intellectualism and impishness, her work changed the landscape of U.S. civil and human rights.
As a civil rights attorney, Murray made ground-breaking race-sex equal protection arguments; wrote the Supreme Court brief overturning all-white, all-male juries; and she challenged gender norms in her writings and her life. She taught law in Ghana and at Yale, and in the Afro-American Studies department at Brandeis. She was the first black to receive a doctorate from Yale Law School, and was a founder of NOW, the National Organization of Women. Murray was a prolific poet and late in life she became the first black woman ordained as a priest with the Episcopal Church.