Executive Director

If you are snow bound, I urge you take a few minutes and listen to the stories posted on the web page of the Open Society Institute:  Across the Divide: Stories about Race in Baltimore. (http://www.soros.org/initiatives/baltimore/multimedia/divide_20091104.)   The stories are part of year long partnership between OSI and WYPR, Baltimore’s public radio station.   Each is a first person monologue and provides a perspective on the experience of race and how racial attitudes are formed.   Below is a description of the series from OSI:

“Across the Divide” series is a collection of personal stories about race in Baltimore. Some stories are about events that laid the foundation for how someone thinks about race in their lives; others are events that made people rethink the role race plays in their lives. Some of the stories are even funny. The point is to break a hugely complicated subject into life-size pieces by sharing stories of how race is learned and lived in our community.

These radio stories will air regularly on Maryland Morning on WYPR 88.1 FM through February 2010. “Across the Divide” is produced in collaboration with OSI-Baltimore, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and The Stoop Storytelling series.

Episode Five: “Not Black, Not White, Not Latino. Native American”
OSI-Baltimore Fellow Ashley Minner talks about being a 26-year-old Native American in Baltimore.

Episode Four: “Black and Blacker”
Antonio Johnson is a student at Morgan State University. He tells us about the segregation he saw in Baltimore growing up, and how, in his predominately African-American middle school, lighter-skinned and darker-skinned African Americans divided into their own cliques.

Episode Three: “There was a coldness that happened”
One of the lesser-noted aftershocks of the infamous 1968 riots was the “Maryland Youth Rally for Decency” at Memorial Stadium on April 20, 1969. It was anything but decent. In a melee tinged with racial tension, scores were injured—including several police officers—and seven were stabbed. Tyrone Crawley, who grew up in East Baltimore, was there; he was 13 at the time. He tells us his story.

Episode Two: “I think I was six or seven before I realized that the whole world wasn’t Jewish”
In the second in our “Across the Divide” series of personal stories about race, Senator Ben Cardin talks about growing up in a racially and ethnically segregated Baltimore.

Episode One:  “No, you got my job”
Eddie Bartee Sr. worked at the steel factory at Sparrows Point for over 42 years. He was a union leader for many of those years and, as an African-American worker, was on the frontlines of the consent decree that integrated the factory on the heels of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the first story in our series, Bartee talks about the first day the consent decree went into effect.

Executive Director

The Columbia School of Law and the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) have been tracking the impact the 2003 Supreme Court decision in Grutter v. Bollinger.   Grutter challenged the University of Michigan School of Law’s admission policy on the grounds that it discriminated against white students.   The Supreme Court found that diversity in the student body was a compelling state interest that permitted race conscious admissions policies, and provided a framework for law schools to develop a policy within the bounds of the Constitution.

Columbia and SALT have found that the effect of the decision was not to increase diversity, but quite the opposite.   The percentage of students in law school classes who are African American or Mexican American is down significantly despite that the GPA’s and LSAT scores of African American and Mexican American students have steadily improved and they continue to apply to law school in constant numbers.   The data published by Columbia and SALT is compelling and well worth reviewing.      The available data is through 2008, so the impact of the recession is not yet known.

Without a doubt, diversity is important throughout the profession.  The entire profession benefits and the principles of justice are served (as are basic notions of fairness) when barriers to entry into the practice of law on the grounds of race are removed.  Race conscious admissions are essential to getting that job done. 

Diversity in race and in economic background is especially important to legal aid work.  A diverse staff ensures that the program has cultural competence and credibility with the community being served. 

Executive Director

Talking (or not) About Race:   The Open Society Institute in Baltimore is engaged in a year-long set of conversations about race.  In the wake of the Obama election, they are taking on the issue from a broad range of perspectives by collecting stories, publishing blogs by thought leaders, and holding discussions on the radio.  They are looking closely at what people are saying and, importantly, not saying.  It is well worth checking out.  

 Legal Services Funding:  There is a great post on the Poverty and Policy Blog on the funding of the federal Legal Services Corporation.  If all goes well, Congress will substantially increase resources for federally funded programs and lift many of the restrictions on the use of the money.

 Child Poverty in the United States Much Worse than Most of the Industrialized World:  Legal Momentum just published a comparison of child poverty and public supports in the United States and other industrialized nations.  While our children are much poorer (21% of US children are poor), benefits usage rates are much lower in the United States. 

 New York Times Covers Rising Food Stamp Usage:  There was a great piece in the New York Times on the rising usage of Food Stamps in all communities across the county.  The recession had made Food Stamps so common that the stigma of public assistance is being diminished.

 Right to Counsel in Immigration Proceedings: This week, Human Rights Watch and the Constitution Project released reports calling for reform of the immigration detention process.   Both called for a right to appointed counsel in deportation and detention proceedings.