Juneteenth commemorates the issuance of the emancipation proclamation for enslaved African descendants in Texas on June 19, 1865. In celebration of Juneteenth - now a federal holiday - the African American Affairs Committee of the ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice will host a dynamic webinar exploring the significance of hair to African descendants’ historic and contemporary quests for freedom, justice, equity, and full recognition of personhood within American law and society. Panelists will also discuss civil rights legislation, litigation, and policy aimed at redressing race-based natural hair discrimination, infringements upon freedom of expression, the harms of chemical relaxers, alongside contemplating the role of law and corporations in both perpetuating and remediating these harms disproportionately endured by African descendants.
Introductions:
Mary L. Smith - President, American Bar Association; Vice Chair, VENG Group; Chair, Caroline and Ora Smith Foundation
Robin R. Runge - Chair, ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice; Distinguished Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School; Consultant
Speakers:
Chelsie Green - Associate Attorney, Levin Papantonio Rafferty Law
Torri Jacobus - Director of Statewide Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, Administrative Office of the Courts, Supreme Court of New Mexico
Patricia Okonta - Assistant Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Cary Martin Shelby - Ralph Brill Endowed Chair Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law; Co-Chair, African American Affairs Committee, ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice
Moderator
D. Wendy Greene - Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Law, Policy and Social Action, Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law; Co-Chair, African American Affairs Committee, ABA Section on Civil Rights and Social Justice