The 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act will be the focus of a panel discussion on Thursday, April 2, at Wayne State University Law School.
Five panelists will share their expertise from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium at the law school, 471 W. Palmer St.
The event is presented by the Wayne Law Dean’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan Chronicle, will moderate the discussion and Barbara L. McQuade, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, will deliver opening remarks.
Panelists will be:
• Leah Aden, assistant counsel of the political participation group at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
• Jocelyn Benson, dean of Wayne Law.
• U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich.
• Dr. Kareem Crayton, associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law.
• Vanita Gupta, acting assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
Aden represents black people in a variety of actions involving voter discrimination, including challenges to discriminatory voting measures under the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. Constitution and state laws.
Benson’s areas of expertise include civil rights law, election law and education law. She is founder and executive director of the nonpartisan Michigan Center for Election Law, which hosts projects that support transparency and integrity in elections.
Conyers, a 1958 Wayne Law alumnus who has served in Congress for nearly 50 years, is one of the 13 founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which was formed in 1969 to strengthen black lawmakers’ ability to address the legislative concerns of minority citizens.
Crayton focuses his research on the relationship between race and politics and is considered a leading voice in the field.
Gupta previously was deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and the director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice. For several years, she also was an adjunct clinical professor at New York University School of Law, where she taught and oversaw a civil rights litigation clinic.
Admission is free, and lunch will be provided.
Register by contacting Kaylee Place at kaylee.place@wayne.edu or 313-577-2731.
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