On January 18, 2008, the University of Louisville Law Review will host a symposium on the voluntary school integration cases that were recently decided by the United States Supreme Court, with a particular focus on Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education. The decision of these cases will likely define schools’ ability to encourage diversity and prevent a reversion to segregation. While undoubtedly of great importance around the country, this decision is especially important here in Louisville, where one of the cases originated.

The Law Review’s Symposium aims to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to the continuing national debate on issues of race and inclusion and to contribute to the scholarship on school desegregation and race. The following distinguished scholars, who are experts in fields related to this issue, will submit articles exploring the strengths and weaknesses of the Supreme Court’s decision, the future of voluntary school integration, and other avenues for addressing the issue of voluntary school integration, as well as many other aspects of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Meredith case:

Reginald C. Oh, Professor of Law at Texas Wesleyan University

Gary Orfield, Co-Founder and Director of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard

Liliana M. Garces, a Research Assistant at The Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles and a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Erica Frankenberg, an advanced doctoral candidate at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and is a research assistant at The Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

Girardeau A. Spann, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center

Bryan K. Fair – Professor of Law at the University of Alabama, School of Law

john a. powell - Executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University

From the preceding authors, Professors Orfield, Garces, Frankenberg, Oh, Spann, Fair and powell will present their articles at the live symposium on January 18, 2008. Prof. Gary Orfield will be delivering the keynote speech. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Emily Zahn at ewzahn01@louisville.edu.

Please note: The symposium has been approved for 6 CLE credit hours.