In this three-part lecture, Martha Minow, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence and Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor, discusses the legacies of Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 civil rights case in which the Supreme Court declared state laws concerning the segregation of public schools to be unconstitutional. Minow, who served as dean of HLS from 2009-2017, talks about the history behind the case, the ramifications of the decision, and how it and the social movements surrounding it lay the groundwork for advances in equal educational opportunity not only on the basis of race, but on the basis of gender, disability, religion and sexual orientation, over time also influencing changes in the treatment of children based on their home language and socioeconomic status as well.
The HLS Bicentennial Lectures are presented by selected HLS faculty to mark the 200th year since the founding of Harvard Law School in 1817.