Sandra Day O'Connor Institute Launches Online Constitution Series

PHOENIX, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to gain greater understanding and unify our nation, the Sandra Day O'Connor Institute is launching a free online public forum, the Constitution Series: Equality and Justice For All. The inaugural distinguished speaker will be Justin Hansford, J.D., Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University. The complimentary online forum will take place on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 10 am PDT,1 pm EDT.

As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor stated, "In order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity."

Justin Hansford is a professor of law and the founder and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law. Dating back to 1869, Howard University School of Law is the nation's most renowned historically Black law school. The Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center is Howard University's flagship institutional setting for the study and practice of civil rights, human rights, and racial justice advocacy. Thurgood Marshall was an American lawyer who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall was the U.S. Supreme Court's first African-American justice.

Professor Hansford was previously a Democracy Project Fellow at Harvard University, a visiting professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, and an associate professor of Law at Saint Louis University. He has a B.A. from Howard University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a founder of the Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives. Hansford also has received a Fulbright Scholar award to study the legal career of Nelson Mandela, and served as a clerk for Judge Damon J. Keith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Thurgood Marshall served together on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1981 to 1991. Following Justice O'Connor's retirement from the Court, she founded the nonprofit and nonpartisan Sandra Day O'Connor Institute in 2009. The Institute has long served as a convener of civil dialogue that has sought to foster solutions rather than stand on the sidelines with good intentions. With core values of inclusivity, civility and collaboration, the organization believes that the expressed ideals of this great nation require exploring issues of injustice. The Constitution Series hopes to broaden perspectives and increase understanding through thoughtful listening, mutual respect and shared purpose.

To register for the free, online public forum or for more information, visit www.OConnorInstitute.org.

About The Sandra Day O'Connor Institute Founded in 2009 by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the O'Connor Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3), continues her distinguished legacy and lifetime work to advance civil discourse, civic engagement and civics education.

SOURCE Sandra Day O’Connor Institute

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