Honoring Ronald H. Brown: Symbol of Economic Justice

Ronald H. Brown, the first African American to become U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Chair of the Democratic National Committee, graduated from St. John’s University School of Law in 1970. The Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development, named after the former Secretary, will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Brown’s graduation from St. John’s by hosting symposia and other events during the upcoming academic year. The first of these events will be a symposium on November 13th and 14th featuring the scholarship of St. John’s Law School faculty writing on themes relating to civil rights, economic development and social justice. The symposium will be held at St. John’s Law School on the Queens campus.

Professor Leonard M. Baynes is Director of the Ron Brown Center. Under his direction, the Center has sponsored symposia focusing on civil rights and economic development, along with extraordinarily successful pipeline programs aimed at increasing racial and socioeconomic diversity on law school faculties and among law students. The Center’s most recent symposium, organized by Professor Baynes and the Center’s Assistant Director Janai Nelson, was entitled Making History: Race, Gender, The Media and the 2008 Elections.