Equal Protection’s Grand Promise and Betrayals: Reconstruction, Plessy to Bakke and Beyond: Is there a Way Forward?

30 speakers | 6 panels | 2 days

Three months following the November 2020 elections and a last-minute appointment to the Supreme Court, the UNC Center for Civil Rights will meet to explore the origins, present status, and future promise of the Equal Protection Clause in these times. The symposium’s premise is that the Supreme Court may well have lost its jurisprudential way, with far-reaching and adverse consequences, especially for people of color, in areas including school desegregation, housing and employment law, access to governmental services, the criminal justice system, voting rights, and higher education. The symposium will give special attention to the 1978 Bakke opinions and the continuing battle over affirmative action policies in higher education. During this two-day journey on February 18-19, 2021, attendees will hear and learn from some of the nation’s foremost legal scholars, attorneys, and advocates. We hope you will join us.