Margaret Burnham

The death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black teenager shot by self-​​appointed com­mu­nity watch cap­tain George Zim­merman in Florida, has sparked a tur­bu­lent nation­wide dia­logue on race and so-​​called “stand your ground” laws, which autho­rize the use of lethal force in cases of self-​​defense. On Tuesday, law pro­fessor Deb­orah Ramirez spoke at a panel con­vened by Con­gres­sional Democ­rats to address the case.

This after­noon, Pulitzer Prize-​​winning author Isabel Wilk­erson will give a lec­ture at Northeastern’s School of Law enti­tled “Voices from the Black Migra­tion.” The event is spon­sored by the Civil Rights and Restora­tive Jus­tice (CRRJ) Project, and is part of a day of pro­gram­ming in which North­eastern will cel­e­brate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We asked law pro­fessor Mar­garet Burnham, who founded CCRJ, to explain both the sig­nif­i­cance of Wilkerson’s visit and stu­dents’ par­tic­i­pa­tion in the project.

Law-​​school researchers dis­cover that land-​​ownership by blacks often served as a deadly trigger during the civil rights era.

North­eastern law pro­fessor and stu­dents win set­tle­ment in civil suit over 1964 killing of black teenagers in Mississippi