Derrick Bell to speak at USC Law

Renowned legal scholar and former USC Law professor will discuss “The Current Relevance of the Constitution”

-By Lori Stuenkel

Derrick Bell, a renowned constitutional legal scholar who began his academic career at USC Law, will speak to students Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Room 1.

The New York University School of Law visiting professor of law will give a talk titled “The Current Relevance of the Constitution.”

Bell began his distinguished academic career as executive director of the Western Center on Law & Poverty, California ’s oldest and largest provider of legal services to low-income individuals, which began as a clinical program at USC Law. The nonprofit organization will honor Bell during a Sept. 20 celebration of its 40^th anniversary.

Following his time at USC Law, Bell in 1971 became the first black tenured professor at Harvard Law School. Two years later, he published Race, Racism and American Law, now a standard law school text.

Bell later taught and served as dean at the University of Oregon School of Law. He resigned when he was not allowed to appoint an Asian-American woman to the faculty. He then went back to Harvard but later refused to return from a leave of absence he took to protest the lack of women of color on the faculty. 

Since 1991, Bell has been a visiting professor at NYU, where he teaches Constitutional Law and Current Constitutional Issues.

Bell holds an A.B. from Duquesne University and an LL.B. from University of Pittsburgh Law School. He is the author of And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice (Harper, 1992), the New York Times bestseller Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (Harper, 1992) and Ethical Ambition: Living a Life of Meaning and Worth ( Bloomsbury , 2002).

Following his talk with students Sept. 19, Bell also will hold an informal discussion with USC Law faculty members from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge. Bell will speak on the difficulties of teaching Constitutional Law in a time when the Supreme Court’s decisions give credence to the critical legal studies view that the law is indeterminate.