Martin Luther King Jr. Endowed Lecture Series
Each year Lewis & Clark Law School hosts an endowed lecture honoring the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made possible by a generous grant from Jacqueline Alexander ’07 and Lee Matthews ’73. The lecture brings internationally recognized legal scholars, practitioners, jurists and civil rights leaders to Lewis & Clark to speak on issues of diversity, race relations, tolerance, and equal rights.
Carol Anderson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and a member of the Society of American Historians, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Anderson examined how racial divisiveness is being used to undermine American democracy. With key provisions of the Voting Rights Act under debate in the Supreme Court and state legislatures rapidly changing election laws, she provided historical context, arguing that such actions reflect a familiar response among white populations who perceive a threat to their status.
2025 - Postponed
Ben Crump, renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney and one of the nation’s foremost lawyers and advocates for social justice, presented the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Endowed Lecture on February 20. Mr. Crump was joined by Lewis & Clark Law Professor Robert Klonoff for a Q/A format. A reception followed the lecture. Professor Klonoff has worked closely with Ben Crump as co-counsel in ongoing litigation on behalf of the family of Henrietta Lacks against companies that profited by the use of Henrietta’s “immortal cell line.”
2022 - Lessons of Martin Luther King Jr. in Life and in Practice
2021 - Lessons of Martin Luther King Jr. in Oregon Courtrooms
2019 - Justice Adrienne Nelson
2018 - The Honorable Arthur L. Burnett, Sr.
2016 - The School-to-Prison Pipeline : a Pressing Civil Rights Issue
