There can be no justice without love, and no love without deep reflection on power, violence and how we respond to each.

Watch a panel conversation about the relevance of environmental justice in the following domains: - national security, represented by Lizzy Shackelford, former diplomat and author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age - business, represented by Sonal Gerten, who teaches Marketing at Hamline and serves on the Juxtaposition Arts Board of Directors - Black life and law, represented by T. Anansi Wilson, Director of the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law and Associate Professor of Law, Mitchell Hamline School of Law Part of the CJL's 2022-2024 theme of Environmental Justice and the Law

𝐍𝐀𝐀𝐂𝐏 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐀 𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬, 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭, 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐬 𝐎𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡

• Professor Anansi Wilson(they/them) Dr. T. Anansi Wilson is an award-winning scholar of law, literary and cultural studies, a racial-justice strategist, and an author of creative nonfiction. Their legal research is situated in legal philosophy, critical theory, political economy, and constitutional law. Their writing and scholarship primarily focuses on the history of Black thought, art, and imagination crafted in response to, and resistance against, the social, political, and legal realities of domination in the West.

• Dr. Audrey Elegbede (she/her) Dr. Elegbede is an educator, speaker and professional coach who holds doctorate in Cultural Anthropology from Brown University and over 20 years of experience in higher education. Her work centers on Quality Education, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Critical Race Theory, intersectionality, social justice approaches and anti-oppression pedagogies. Her white privilege course was the first catalogued on the subject within the University of Wisconsin.

• Natalia Alvarez Benjamin Natalia Benjamin is Minnesota's 2021 Teacher of the Year. A Century High School teacher, she is the first educator from Rochester, Minnesota to receive the prestigious award as well as the first person of Latin American heritage to receive the statewide honor. At Century High School, she teaches multilingual students and ethnic studies and creates an open, supportive environment with mutual respect among students.

Moderated by Mrs. Barbara Jordan, Secretary of Rochester Branch NAACP Rochester Branch NAACP President: Mr. Wale Elegbede

Jeff Wagner talks to Mitchell Hamline law professor Dr. Anansi Wilson to learn more about our First Amendment rights (

Four Black men, who happen to be scholars, will come together to participate in a moderated, candid discussion–first amongst themselves, and then with the audience–about racial healing, history, and the law.

Featuring: Dr. T. Anansi Wilson of Mitchell Hamline School of Law (author of “Godless Circumcisions: A Recollecting & Re-Membering of Blackness, Queerness & Flows of Survivance”)

Dr. Micah L. McCreary of New Brunswick Theological Seminary (author of “Trauma and Race: A Pathway of Well-Being”)

Dr. Brian K. Mitchell of Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (author of “Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana” & co-author of “Blood in Their Eyes: Revised Edition”)

Kwami Abdul-Bey of Arkansas Peace & Justice Memorial Movement (author of “THE TABLES HAVE TURNED: A Street Guide to Guerrilla Lawfare & co-author of “Hip Hop & Policing”)

This conversation explores the politics of the Black Queer Body within the tensions of the law, justice, and equity. The panel will discuss legal reimaginings that navigate the complexity of the law for and against Black Queer culture while balancing a legal thin-line of cultural erasure, assimilation, and integration for the sake of socio-political normalization. Emphasizing the cause and effect of gender and sexuality of the Black Queer community, this dialogue seeks to examine the unique space that Black Queer folk occupy within a white cis-heteronormative society.

Speakers Elyse Ambrose(Speaker)

I. India Thusi(Speaker)Indiana University Maurer School of Law,

Professor of Law Anansi WIlson(Speaker)Center for the Study of Black Life and The Law, Founding Director

Tune into another powerful interview that shines a light on emerging voices in

The Midwest, and Minnesota in particular, are traditionally seen as repositories of America’s most cherished values. A significant number of First Amendment cases in the state have shaped the boundaries and protections of free expression. In Near v. Minnesota (1931), for example, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a rogue newspaper that accused local officials of being implicated with gangsters; the case was later cited as a precedent for upholding publication of the Pentagon Papers. A more recent ruling, Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (2018), maintained that a state law prohibiting individuals from wearing political apparel around polling places was unconstitutional. How have these and other cases contributed to the evolving understanding of Free Speech rights? Is there a dark side to this history?

Featured: Suki Dardarian, editor and senior vice president of the Star Tribune, oversees all newsroom operations. She joined the newspaper in 2014, and prior to that, was managing editor and director of audience development at the Seattle Times, where she was a senior editor for 14 years. Dardarian helped oversee work that earned two Pulitzer Prizes, for breaking news and investigative reporting. She earlier served as a senior editor and reporter at the News Tribune in Tacoma, Washington.

Leita Walker, a litigator in the Minneapolis office of Ballard Spahr, has nearly 15 years of experience defending media organizations in libel cases and helping them obtain access to governmental and judicial records. Her First Amendment practice includes defending libel, privacy, and right of publicity claims; prepublication vetting of both news and entertainment content; and advising clients on subpoenas and privilege issues, copyright law, and state and federal Freedom of Information Act laws.

T. Anansi Wilson, an associate professor at Mitchell Hamline Law School, is founding director of the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law, articulating interventions into the ways the law orders and disorders Black and BlaQueer living and dying in the United States. Wilson’s work analyzes the ever-changing relationship among race, law, sexuality, power, and citizenship. They were recently awarded the MN Lavender Bar Association’s Equity & Justice Award. Wilson earned a JD from Howard University Law School and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.

Sid Bedingfield (moderator), a journalism historian, is a professor and Cowles Research Fellow in Journalism, Democracy, and Race at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of Newspaper Wars: Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935-1965, and co-editor of Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America. He spent more than two decades as a journalist at newspapers, a wire service, and CNN. Recorded Sept. 18, 2023

Hosted by the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law and the Mitchell Hamline School of Law Law Review, for the spring law review symposium, this panel featured local leaders in policy, governance and community work. They discussed how public policy in Minnesota effects Black living and dying and possibilities for moving forward.

Jamael Lundy,  Intergovernmental Affairs Director for County Attorney Mary Moriarty

Lyndsey Olson, City Attorney, City of Saint Paul

Mikeya Griffin, Executive Director, Rondo Community Land Trust

Representative Ruth Richardson, DFL, 52B

Justin Terrell, Executive Director, Minnesota Justice Research Center

Moderated by Gillian Mwangi, President of the Black Law Students Association

Dr. T. Anansi Wilson is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law and curated this symposium in partnership with the Mitchell Hamline Law Review.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law, "Becoming Our Ancestors Wildest Dreams: Black MHSL Students & Alumnae Reflect on Juneteenth, Black Life & The Law" will feature reflections from, and a panel by, four Black women students and alumnae from Mitchell Hamline School of Law. They will then engage in a discussion and Q&A moderated by Dr. T. Anansi Wilson.

Law student Isaac Manchego moderates this conversation between Dr. T. Anansi Wilson & Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty discuss the pathways and problems for an equitable justice system. What role does critical theory have in law enforcement or prosecution? How should data and/or personal experience impact our interpretation of law? Is law the answer, the problem or the scapegoat? What of antiracism and antiBlackness? What are the boundaries between free speech, hate speech, public safety and government or police suppression? What should they be? Whether you're an activist, a community organizer, or simply someone who cares about the world, this event is for you. Get ready to be inspired, educated, and empowered to take action. Don't miss out on this opportunity to be part of the solution!

What do we do when the law is either not enough, or the chief architect of our demise? In this dialogue scholars, organizers, artists and mental health professionals come together to meditate on how we practice care outside of formal legal frameworks--and mediate democratized harm--without sacrificing our lives in the process.

Featuring:

Hunter Shackleford, Multidisciplinary Artist, Independent Scholar & Bioethicist

TJ, Multi-Medium Artist, Philosopher & Aspiring Death Doula

Daniel McCrary, LICSW, Psychotherapist & LGBTQ+ Advocate

Dr. Demar F. Lewis IV, PhD, Assistant Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice

Dr. T. Anansi Wilson, JD/PhD, Associate Professor of Law, Founding Director, Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law

This is event is sponsored and hosted by Dr. T. Anansi Wilson and the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. None of the opinions expressed by any of the participants, including Dr. Wilson, represent the views, values or position of the Center or the law school.