Lecture Series

Clarence Clyde Ferguson Jr. was a 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.

Charles Hamilton Houston was an American lawyer and educator instrumental in laying the legal groundwork that led to U.S. Supreme Court rulings outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

Each year, the Howard Law Journal, with the support of Sidley Austin LLP and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, holds the Wiley A. Branton Symposium to honor Howard University School of Law’s former Dean, civil rights activist, and Sidley partner, the late Wiley A. Branton.

James M. Nabrit, Jr. was a graduate of Morehouse College and Northwestern University Law School. He joined Howard University’s law faculty in 1936 and, two years later, taught the first formal civil rights law course at an American law school.