Public Interest Blog
Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement
“We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement”, is a collaborative effort of the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
These interesting places listed below played an important role in the Civil Rights Movement.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/civilrights/sitelist.htm
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Law Library Hours – Presidents’ Day Weekend
The Law Library will be operating during the following days and hours of Presidents’ Day Weekend:
Saturday, February 18th: 10 am – 10 pm
Sunday, February 19th: Noon – 11: 30 pm
Monday, February 20th: Noon – 8pm
Thank You,
Library Staff
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Founders’ Day Convocation and Awards Program
The Law Library will be closed during the following hours on Wednesday, February 15th in observance of the University Founders’ Day Convocation and Awards program.
9:30 am – Noon
Thank You,
Library Staff
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Word of the Day: Restrictive Covenants
Now unenforceable as the result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948), restrictive covenants were terms in private, contractual agreements among homeowners to prohibit purchasing, leasing, or occupying property by certain groups of people, usually based on race or religion.
The Kraemers unsuccessfully sued in Missouri state court to prohibit the African-American Shelley family from owning property in violation of the property’s restrictive covenant that prohibited “people of the Negro or Mongolian race” from owning the property. They appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, which reversed the decision in favor of the Kraemers. The Shelleys appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The case was consolidated with a similar case from Michigan.
Writing for a unanimous Supreme Court, Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court:
“We have no doubt that there has been State action in these cases in the full and complete sense of the phrase. The undisputed facts disclose that petitioners were willing purchasers of properties upon which they desired to establish homes. The owners of the properties were willing sellers; and contracts of sale were accordingly consummated. It is clear that but for the active intervention of the State courts, supported by the full panoply of State power, petitioners would have been free to occupy the properties in question without restraint. . . .
The Fourteenth Amendment declares “that all persons, whether colored or white, shall stand equal before the laws of the States, and, in regard to the colored race, for whose protection the amendment was primarily designed, that no discrimination shall be made against them by law because of their color” . . . .
The historical context in which the Fourteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution should not be forgotten. Whatever else the framers sought to achieve, it is clear that the matter of primary concern was the establishment of equality in the enjoyment of basic civil and political rights and the preservation of those rights from discriminatory action on the part of the States based on considerations of race or color. Seventy-five years ago this Court announced that the provisions of the Amendment are to be construed with this fundamental purpose in mind.Upon full consideration, we have concluded that in these cases the States have acted to deny petitioners the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
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A Higher Education Dual System of Separate and Unequal Schools?: Maryland HBCUs Sue the Maryland Higher Education Commission
The state’s four historically black colleges and universities (Morgan State, Coppin State, Bowie State, and University of Maryland Eastern Shore) allege that Maryland continues to operate a dual and unequal system of separate colleges and universities in violation of federal civil-rights statutes and the U.S. Constitution.
Expert witnesses at the trial now ongoing in a Baltimore federal court have “found current indicators of unequal and inadequate funding, institutional missions, educational programs, and facilities” at the HBCUs, as well as evidence that Maryland duplicated certain educational graduate programs when such programs already existed at nearby HBCUs.
For more information, see the editorial in the Baltimore Sun, Jan. 9, 2012, at
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-hbcus-lawsuit-20120109,0,6703204.story; and letter to the editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 29, 2012, by Professors John K. Pierre and John C. Brittain, at
http://chronicle.com/article/Maryland-Lawsuit-Is-Hardly/130481/.
Professor John Brittain, a tenured professor at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, is an attorney in this litigation. He is an education law specialist and was one of the counsel in Sheff v. O’Neill, a 1996 landmark school desegreation case, has been Chief Counsel and Senior Deputy Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and President of the National Lawyers’ Guild, legal counsel to NAACP. He has many awards for his work in civil rights education and litigation. See his bio at http://www.law.udc.edu/?page=JBrittain.
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Some JDs Just Want to Be Librarians
Sometimes the idea emerges as a law student learns the lawyering skill of legal research and loves it. Sometimes it almost seems to be what Paulo Coelho describes as a Personal Legend path. After the inspiration, what next?
Yes, there’s library school to get the Master of Library and Information Science (or Master of Library Science). The American Library Association publishes a list of accredited library programs at http://www.ala.org/accreditedprograms/directory.
But more school means more money, and law students often have education loan debt already. Financial aid is available. One source is the American Association of Law Libraries which offers scholarships. See http://www.aallnet.org/main-menu/Member-Resources/scholarships.
Sometimes library schools also offer scholarships or work-study type aid programs. Currently,the University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science is offering significant aid. It’s also worth checking out other programs, such as the University of Washington’s Information School’s law librarian track in its Master of Library and Information Science program and the scholarship resources available at http://ischool.uw.edu/mlis/admissions/financial-aid.
Here’s information the University of Arizona program has recently posted:
Are you a law school graduate interested in obtaining a library degree? The University of Arizona School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) and the Cracchiolo Law Library of the James E. Rogers College of Law offer a two-year fellowship in law librarianship for lawyers seeking to become law librarians. The successful applicant will work 20 hours per week in the Law Library while pursuing an M.A. in Information Resources and Library Science. The salary is $12,000 per fiscal (twelve-month) year (based on an annual salary of $24,000 prorated at .50 FTE/20 hours per week). Benefits and tuition reduction are included. (In the current fiscal year the fellowship recipient would pay minimum tuition and surcharges up to about $200 per semester and have the remaining tuition and other fees waived).
For further information and application details see: www.uacareertrack.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=203900
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Elected to Public Office: 20th-21st Century Firsts in Black History
1966: Edward Brooke, Senator from Massachusetts, http://baic.house.gov/member-profiles/profile.html?intID=125
1967: Carl Stokes, mayor of a major city, Cleveland, Ohio, http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=SCB2
1968: Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=c000371
1989: L. Douglas Wilder, Governor of Virginia,
http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/wilder.htm
1992: Carol Mosely Braun, Senator from Illinois, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m001025
2008: President Barack Obama,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president-obama
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Law Library Hours – Spring Semester Hours
The law library regular days and hours of operation for the duration of the Spring Semester are as follows:
Monday – Friday
8am – 11: 30 pm
Saturday
10 am – 10 pm
Sunday
Noon – 11: 30 pm
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Law Library Hours – Thursday, February 2nd
The Law Library will operate during the following hours on Thursday, Febrary 2nd.
8am – 10 pm
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Honoring Black History Month
Today is the first day of February – Black History Month!
As part of the Mason Law Library’s of Black History Month, we will send a post each week that is relevant to the contributions of African Americans in Washington DC and beyond.
Please take a look at the link below – it is from the HistoryMakers website and features biographical information about renowned African American in the legal field.
http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/category_details.asp?sp=1&category=lawMakers
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