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Public: Recent News

From the opening bell Thursday morning (May 20) at the N.C. Bar Center to the final gavel Friday evening (May 21) at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Cary, the North Carolina Bar Association’s highly anticipated commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education was a tremendous success.

Judge James Wynn of the N.C. Court of Appeals, who chaired the Brown v. Board of Education Committee, had predicted several weeks ago that the program would rival that of any Brown v. Board observance taking place nationwide, and he was right.

Attendance and participation was exceptional on both days, highlighted by an audience of some 500 who attended Friday’s daytime segment at the McKimmon Center on the campus of N.C. State University.

Strong showings were also evident for Thursday’s daylong CLE program at the N.C. Bar Center, conducted by the NCBA Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section, in conjunction with the Legal Assistants Division, and Friday evening’s celebration dinner at the Embassy Suites featuring the Brown sisters, Linda and Cheryl.

Judges Wynn and NCBA President Allyson K. Duncan provided welcoming statements and introductions to open Friday’s program, followed by an Introduction to Brown.

Presenters were professors Charles Daye of the UNC School of Law, Jack Boger of the UNC Center for Civil Rights which co-sponsored the event, Gena Rae McNeill (UNC), Jack Bass of the University of Mississippi (retired) and Raleigh attorney Don Cowan, past president of the NCBA.

A splendid re-argument of Brown followed, featuring Charlotte attorney James Ferguson II who appeared on behalf of the plaintiffs and Professor Wendy Parker of the Wake Forest University School of Law who represented the defendant. N.C. Supreme Court Justice Mark Martin provided the introductory statement.

Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals served as chief justice. Serving as justices were be Judges Ann Claire Williams of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court; Roger Gregory and Duncan of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court; and former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justices Rhoda Billings, James G. Exum and Henry Frye.

Professor Jack Greenberg of Columbia Law School, who participated in the oral argument of Brown as a young attorney serving with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, was the featured luncheon speaker.

Former Gov. Hunt and John Hope Franklin, the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History and former law professor at Duke University, were recognized at the luncheon as recipients of Presidential Awards presented by Judge Duncan.

The daytime program concluded with a lively panel discussion moderated by Bill Friday, former president of the consolidated UNC system. The panelists were Julius Chambers, former chancellor of North Carolina Central University; former Gov. Hunt; Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr.; Wake County Schools Superintendent Bill McNeal; Dean Gene Nichol of the UNC School of Law; Annie Brown Kennedy, the first African-American woman to serve in the General Assembly, and Justice Martin.

The evening event included welcoming remarks and introductions from Elizabeth L. “Betty” Quick, vice chair of the Brown v. Board Committee and a past-president of the NCBA.

Two Presidential Awards were presented at the dinner to Superintendent McNeal, the 2004 American Association of School Administrators’ Superintendent of the Year, and Dr. Chambers, who in 1967 joined former Chief Justice Frye in becoming the first African Americans to join the NCBA.

Susan Giamportone, who chairs the NCBA Lawyers in the Schools Committee, presented Brown v. Board Essay Contest awards to winners Laura Tabor (9th-10th grades) of Cary High School and Joseph Berger (11th-12th grades) of Lejeune High School.

Keith Vaughan introduced sisters Cheryl Brown Henderson and Linda Brown Thompson, the latter for whom the landmark suit was filed by her father, the late Rev. Oliver Brown. Vaughan, the managing member of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, which sponsored the appearance by the Brown sisters, also paid tribute to the role of lawyers in general and firm founder Irving Carlyle in particular.

The Brown v. Board festivities officially began Thursday at the Bar Center with the daylong CLE, Multiculturalism: Brown v. Board to Moussaoui, and the annual meetings of the Legal Assistants Division and the Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section. Mark Prak served as section chair this year while Grace Carter chaired the LAD.

The joint CLE presentation began with a video, “The Road to Brown,” and follow-up discussion led by N.C. Superior Court Judge Howard Manning.

Next on the agenda was a panel discussion: The Attorney and Paralegal Roles in Diversity Issues in the Workplace. Judge Martha Geer of the N.C. Court of Appeals moderated a panel consisting of Carol Brooke of the N.C. Justice and Community Development Center, Gayle Mozee? of Los Angeles and Raleigh attorney Stephen Smalley.

Following lunch and annual meetings, which included an address to the LAD from NCBA President-Elect Gray Wilson, break-out sessions were conducted by each group. Mozee? presented a motivational program, Moving Up the Invisible Career Ladder, to the LAD.

The Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section conducted a panel discussion, Brown’s Impact on Litigation Theories, Strategies and Remedies: Is the Pendulum Swinging Back? Marshall Dayan of the North Carolina Central University School of Law moderated the panel, joined by UNC professors Jack Boger and John Connelly, Charlotte attorneys Luke Largess and Kevin Parsons and Chapel Hill attorney Adam Stein.

The proceedings concluded with general sessions devoted to Multiculturalism and the Struggle with Racial Profiling, led by ACLU Foundation staff attorney Reginald Shuford of Brooklyn, and Representing Zacarias Moussaoui, led by his counsel, Assistant Federal Public Defender Gerald Zerkin of Richmond, Va.