The enduring legacies of Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, Patricia Roberts Harris and countless other graduates of the Howard University School of Law (HUSL) are on full display this year as the historic school celebrates its Sesquicentennial anniversary.
In preparing for “The Next 150” – this year’s anniversary theme – students, faculty, alumni and more will spend the year reflecting on Howard Law School’s role as a pillar in the fight for social justice. Scheduled commemorative events include a recent Sesquicentennial Convocation and an upcoming symposium, gala and fall launch of a comprehensive book on the history of the law school.
“It is very special to celebrate such a historic institution like Howard’s law school,” said Danielle Holley-Walker, professor of law and dean of Howard University School of Law. “The things that the alumni of this law school have accomplished, including really fulfilling some of the promises of the Civil War amendments … when we see what was done to really bring the notion of equal protection under the law to reality through the civil rights litigations of the 40s, 50s, and 60s culminating in the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, so much of that work was germinated here at the law school.”
Holley-Walker added that the institution’s legacy makes it “one of the most important institutions, really, in the United States in terms of fulfilling those highest ideals of what democracy means, what justice means, what equality means.”
“The anniversary is special because it gives us a chance to celebrate all of those things, but most importantly, for me, it gives us a chance to look to the future,” she said.
HUSL students and faculty will reflect on the most pressing justice issues of the moment and what role the institution and its graduates have in ensuring that the U.S. and international community is the “most just that it can be,” particularly for marginalized communities, Holley-Walker said.
Founded during the reconstruction era following the Civil War on January 6, 1869, Howard Law School sought to help newly freed Black citizens secure their most basic freedoms, Holley-Walker added. It was also one of the first schools to admit individuals regardless of their race and gender.
