2023 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics: Margaret Burnham
The 2023 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics will feature Margaret Burnham, Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University. In this lecture, co-hosted by African American Studies and the Rock Ethics Institute, Professor Burnham will discuss her new book By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners — a paradigm-shifting investigation of Jim Crow-era violence, the legal apparatus that sustained it, and its enduring legacy. The lecture will be Thursday, February 23, at 6:00pm in the Flex Theatre (HUB 132).
President Joe Biden recently appointed Professor Burnham to the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, which examines records related to cold cases of murder and other racially motivated violence that occurred between 1940 and 1979. She began her career at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In 1977, she became the first African American woman to serve in the Massachusetts judiciary when she joined the Boston Municipal Court bench as an associate justice. Later in 1993, South African president Nelson Mandela appointed Professor Burnham to serve on an international human rights commission to investigate alleged human rights violations within the African National Congress. The commission was a precursor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
To learn more about Professor Burnham and her research into racial violence, listen to her interview on NPR’s Fresh Air and read the New York Times‘ review of By Hands Now Known.
