Dr. Charles J. Ogletree, the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard University's Law School, spoke to students and faculty at the College's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Lecture, held Thursday night in the University Center's Commonwealth Auditorium. The lecture was preceeded by a vigil in the Auditorium, both of which were led and sponsored by students and administrators from the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Ogletree, nationally known as a lwayer who has represented high profile-clients such as Anita Hill and litigants in a reparations case for victims of the Tulsa Race Riots of 1921, spoke on the subject of the Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954) and its impact on society over the last fifty years. Ogletree was careful to point out that the Supreme Court did not merely overrule the "separate but equal" decision of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case (1896), which essentially legalized segregation nationally, but also ruled in a second decision, which asked courts to integrate schools with "all deliberate speed." Ogletree argued that this phrase was not a directive by the Supreme Court to expedite the process of desegregation, but rather that the Court meant for a slow and gradual integration.
"The goal of the Warren Court, an all white Court, was to make the decision pervasive. By 'all deliberate speed,' the Justices emphasized the word deliberate, in order to slow the proces down. Needless to say this ruling was met with stiff resistance, and most people don't know that the entire Virginia public school system was shut down for over a year in the late 1950s," said Ogletree.
Ogletree pointed out that the Brown case was the turning point in desegregation, with nonviolent movements such as the Montgomery bus boycotts, the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, N.C. and elsewhere, and Rosa Parks' refusal to sit in the back of a segregated bus all following the decisions.
Ogletree also speculated on who he believes will be the successor of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. While Justice Anton Scalia is a very likely candidate, in Ogletree's view, Clarence Thomas is also a "strong candidate" for the position. Thomas, the only African American on the Court, would, if chosen, become the nation's first black Chief Justice.
Student responses to the Ogletree lecture were overwhelmingly positive, and turnout at the event was very impressive.
"The information on the Brown vs. Board of Education decisions was really important. The fact that it initiated desegregation was important, but the second decision was equally important and most people don't know it, but they should," said Lisa Bond, '06.
"He was a little long winded, but he made some very insightful points on the Brown decisions. I liked how he tied Martin Luther King and Justice Thurgood Marshall together and observed their complimetary and necessary roles in law and politics," senior Amanda Alba said about the lecture.