D.C. 靠谱的滚球平台事务所宣布UDC的约翰·布里顿为2024年瑟古德·马歇尔奖得主
2024年4月8日
D.C. 靠谱的滚球平台协会任命哥伦比亚特区大学的大卫. Clarke School of Law (UDC Law) professor 约翰Brittain as the recipient of its 2024 Thurgood Marshall 奖 for his lifelong commitment to advancing civil rights, including litigating important cases across the United States on race equity in public schools 和 higher education 和 mentoring generations of civil rights advocates. Brittain will be honored at the 酒吧’s annual 领导力庆祝活动 on June 20.
“I just jumped with excitement after being in the law for nearly 55 years to be receiving this award from the D.C. 酒吧,” said Brittain, who is currently on sabbatical writing a book 和 his memoir.
在诺沃克出生和长大, 康涅狄格, Brittain attended Howard University for both his undergraduate 和 law degrees. While at Howard, Brittain became a principal research assistant to professor Herbert O. 里德，他在霍华德的导师，他提起诉讼并赢了官司 鲍威尔v. 麦科马克. 1969年的案件涉及美国.S. 众议院议员小亚当·克莱顿·鲍威尔., who had been elected to serve but was denied a seat in the 90th Congress following a sc和al. 当时, Reid reportedly told Brittain to “keep one foot in the classroom teaching in the law school, 另一只脚在法庭上打民权官司.”
1969年从法学院毕业后, Brittain worked for two years with the North 密西西比州 Rural Legal Services in Oxford, 密西西比州, 为学校废除种族隔离和其他民权案件提起诉讼. 他是2月25日之后被捕的81名学生的代理靠谱的滚球平台, 1970, 密西西比大学的抗议活动, 包括“奥莱八小姐.他搬到了杰克逊, 密西西比州, 1971年为民权靠谱的滚球平台委员会工作, 一个由约翰·F·肯尼迪总统创立的公益法律组织. 肯尼迪邀请私人靠谱的滚球平台无偿处理民权方面的案件.
1973年至1977年, 布里顿在旧金山的私人诊所工作, returning to 康涅狄格 afterward 和 becoming the first Black faculty member at the University of 康涅狄格 School of Law (UConn Law). 在法学院教书的时候, Brittain also served as lead counsel in the 1996 康涅狄格 Supreme Court case Sheff v. 奥尼尔 挑战哈特福德市的学校种族隔离.
Brittain taught at UConn Law for 22 years before becoming a professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University from 1999 to 2005 (serving as dean from 1999 to 2002).
他回到了华盛顿.C., in 2005 to serve as chief counsel 和 senior deputy director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. In 2009 he joined UDC Law as a tenured professor 和 served as acting dean from 2018 to 2019.
In 2013 the North Carolina Central University School of Law named Brittain the Charles Hamilton Houston Chair, a role in which he brought prominent civil rights professors 和 litigators to the law school to teach constitutional 和 civil rights for a year.
在他的整个职业生涯中，英国参与了几项美国法律的制定.S. 最高法院有关高等教育中公民权利的案件，包括 参与社区学校的家长v. 西雅图学区. 1 和 梅瑞迪斯v. 杰斐逊县教育委员会这两家公司都在2007年做出了决定. Most recently he served as cocounsel representing private plaintiffs in a 15-year-long federal lawsuit against Maryl和 for denying its historically Black institutions of higher learning — Morgan State University, 科平州立大学, 鲍伊州立大学, 和 the University of Maryl和 Eastern Shore — “comparable 和 competitive” opportunities compared to the state’s other universities. The case settled in 2021 with the state agreeing to remedy violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 和 the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Brittain has written extensively about civil rights 和 human rights issues, 特别是在教育法方面. Some of his most recent published articles include “Reducing Reliance on Testing to Promote Diversity” in the 2014 book The Future of Affirmative Action: New Paths to Higher Education Diversity After 费舍尔v. University of Texas; “Maryl和 Lawsuit Is Hardly ‘Unusual’” (coauthored with John K. Pierre)， 2012年1月写给编辑的信 高等教育编年史; 和 “Admitting the Truth: The Effects of Affirmative Action, Legacy Preference 和 Meritocratic Ideal on Students of Color in College Admissions” in the 2010 book 富人的平权行动:大学录取中的遗产偏好.
尽管英国把他的大部分民权工作都集中在教育上, 他认为投票权也是最重要的. “It’s time now to court voting [rights] the most because voting is power,” Brittain said. “在本世纪20年代的这个时代，我们正在倒退. 这是对所有基本公民权利的攻击. 就像1950年之前，我们还没有进入民权运动.”
他说:“我们必须站起来，坚定地站起来.S.] presidential race for the people to be able to vote 和 not be restricted based upon their color or lack of income,布里顿补充道.
因为他的主张, the NAACP presented Brittain in 1993 the William Robert Ming 宣传 奖, which honors lawyers who exemplify “the spirit of financial 和 personal sacrifice that Ming displayed” in their pro bono legal work for the NAACP. In 2015 the 密西西比州 Center for Justice honored Brittain as a “pioneering civil rights leader 和 esteemed law professor who has inspired a generation of young attorneys.”
英国在法律界也很活跃, serving as president of the National Lawyers Guild between 1991 和 1993 和 in various roles in ACLU’s national board.
