Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review

Mission Statement

Our aim is to be at the forefront of legal scholarship in the areas of human and civil rights, shaping conversations and encouraging reflections on the most relevant causes of injustice through the law.

2023-24 Programming

• Annual HCR Orientation | August 18, 2023
• Annual HCR Group & Headshot Photography | September 14 & 16, 2023
• Defending Diversity: A Discussion with Danielle Conley | October 17, 2023
• Annual HCR Pinning Ceremony | October 20, 2023
• C. Clyde Ferguson Symposium | January 25, 2024
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• Judicial Reception | April 1, 2024

C. Clyde Ferguson Jr. Lecture

Each year, the Howard Human & Civil Rights Law Review hosts the C. Clyde Ferguson Jr. Symposium. This year's topic is: "Voices Unchained: Exploring the Intersection of Expression, Law, & Liberty."

Biography of C. Clyde Ferguson Jr.

Our annual symposium 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.

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.