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Justin Hansford

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Justin Hansford
Hansford in 2019.
Born1981
Washington D.C., U.S.
Alma materHoward University
Georgetown University Law Center
OccupationProfessor of Law
EmployerHoward University School of Law
Known forProfessor of Law, Civil Rights Advocate
AwardsFulbright Scholar award

Justin Hansford (born 1981) is a Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law[1] and the founder and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center.[2][3][4] He was nominated by the United States to serve as a founding member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD).[5][6][7][4] Hansford was previously a democracy project fellow at Harvard University, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, and an associate professor of law at the Saint Louis University School of Law.[8][3][9][10]

Education and career

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Hansford received his B.A. from Howard University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.[3] While a law student at Georgetown, he founded The Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives.[11][12] He was awarded a Fulbright Scholar award to study the legal career of Nelson Mandela, and served as a clerk for Judge Damon J. Keith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.[12][13][10][14]

Hansford is a scholar and activist, specializing in critical race theory, human rights, and law and social movements.[3][15][10][14] He is a co-author of the Seventh Edition of Race, Racism and American Law.[16][6][15][17] He is also a member of the Stanford Medicine Commission on Justice and Equity. He serves as Marcus Garvey's son's lawyer in the effort to posthumously exonerate Marcus Garvey for mail fraud.[18]

Activism

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Living in St. Louis at the time, Hansford immediately became involved in the legal efforts and political protests following the death of Michael Brown in 2015.[13][19][20] One of his most prominent efforts was to write a human rights shadow report for a group he helped create, Ferguson to Geneva,[21][13] then he traveled to Switzerland to present the report along with the family of Mike Brown and other advocates and protesters from Ferguson. Hansford's "rebellious," hands-on advocacy in the justice movement has been written about by Howard law professor Harold McDougall in his article, "The Rebellious Law Professor: Combining Cause and Reflective Lawyering".[22]

During this period, Hansford was arrested while serving as a legal observer in a protest near Ferguson, causing debate in legal academia regarding the propriety of faculty political activism.[23][24] Following his arrest, much of Hansford’s work focused on issues surrounding police brutality and free speech. His work on police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement has been featured on Democracy Now,[25] PBS,[26] and CNN.[27][17] He contributed to advocacy for protester treatment, including co-authoring a United States Supreme Court amicus brief in Doe v. McKesson and writing for Yale Law Journal and the New York Times.[28][29][30] Hansford has also been vocal about the consequences of his repeated exposure to tear gas and trauma from police aggression during protests.[31]

Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center

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In 2018, Professor Hansford founded Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law.[4][2][6] The center was designed to serve as Howard University's flagship institutional setting for the study and practice of civil rights, human rights, and racial justice law and advocacy.[4]

In 2018, along with Howard University law students, Hansford began working to help draft the Movement for Black Lives Reparations toolkit, designed to support grassroots reparations campaigns.[32][33] In 2019, Hansford founded the first Movement Lawyering law clinic in the nation at Howard University School of Law. Through the clinic and the center, Hansford immediately became active, serving as a movement lawyer for the reparations movement. In the same year, the center successfully requested a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on reparations enslavement and Hansford continued to articulate the legal theory for reparations using international law.[34]

In 2020, the center partnered with Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs to establish the African American Redress Network.[35][36] In 2021, the center hosted a national convening on reparations and provided legal support to Evanston, Illinois, for its pioneering housing-based reparations ordinance, the first in the nation.[37]

In 2023, Hansford delivered a speech on reparations at the United Nations advocating that “reparations is what justice looks like in the 21st century".[38]

In 2024, Hansford appeared in the documentary “The Cost of Inheritance” which aired nationally on PBS.[39]

Justice for Marcus Garvey

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Hansford is part of the leadership team for Justice for Garvey,[40] an effort to posthumously pardon famed civil rights leader Marcus Garvey and exonerate him from his 1923 prosecution to mail fraud which has been argued to have been politically and racially motivated by J. Edgar Hoover and others. He co-authored a piece for The Root on the project: "Black History Matters: Why President Obama Should Pardon Marcus Garvey."[41][6][42][43]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Howard University Law Professor Receives D.C. Rising Star Award from the National Law Journal". The Dig at Howard University. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
  2. ^ a b "Sustainable Development Goals: A Roadmap for Collective Impact Part 2 | Cleveland State University". levin.csuohio.edu. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
  3. ^ a b c d "U.S. Candidate for the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent".
  4. ^ a b c d "The Election of Justin Hansford to the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent".
  5. ^ Carnahan, Ashley (2023-06-04). "Biden appointee calls on UN to create reparations tribunal: 'What justice looks like in the 21st century'". Fox News. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  6. ^ a b c d "WHC Cosponsors Visit by Professor Justin Hansford". www.worldhistory.pitt.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  7. ^ "Opinion: An antidote to the GOP war on Black history". CNN. 2023-03-23. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  8. ^ "Civil rights activist Justin Hansford appointed Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard | Howard University School of Law". law.howard.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  9. ^ "Justin Hansford | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  10. ^ a b c "Constitution Series - June 2020 Justin Hansford". Sandra Day O'Connor Institute. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  11. ^ admin (2013-12-11). "Justin Hansford". SLU LAW. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  12. ^ a b "Justin Hansford". Diversity at Stanford Medicine. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
  13. ^ a b c "Justin Hansford | Howard Profiles". profiles.howard.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  14. ^ a b "Reparations for Racial Discrimination in the U.S. | The Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights". holder.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  15. ^ a b "Justin Hansford | Howard University School of Law". law.howard.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  16. ^ Ellis, Atiba; Harris, Cheryl I.; Hansford, Justin; Akbar, Amna A.; McFarlane, Audrey G. (2023-01-31). Race, Racism, and American Law: Leading Cases and Materials, 2023. Aspen Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5438-5029-1.
  17. ^ a b "2020-21 Symposium: Race and the Pandemic – Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice". Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  18. ^ "On His Father's 129th Birthday Marcus Garvey's Son Seeks Presidential Pardon". NBC News. 2016-08-17. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
  19. ^ "Justin Hansford | HuffPost". www.huffpost.com. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  20. ^ "Parents Of Michael Brown To Speak Before U.N. Committee In Geneva". STLPR. 2014-11-03. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  21. ^ "Ferguson to Geneva – Police Violence In America Is A Human Rights Issue". ferguson2geneva.com. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  22. ^ "The Rebellious Law Professor: Combining Cause and Reflective Lawyering".
  23. ^ Hansford, Justin (2014-10-24). "I went to Ferguson to protect the protesters. I got arrested instead". Vox. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  24. ^ "Police Arrest SLU Law Professor and Legal Observer During Saint Louis Protests".
  25. ^ "Howard Prof. Justin Hansford & Abolitionist Andrea Ritchie on Tyre Nichols & Calls for No More Police". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  26. ^ PBS NewsHour | How can Ferguson law enforcement break a pattern of bias? | Season 2015 | PBS. Retrieved 2024-05-01 – via www.pbs.org.
  27. ^ Devastated Witness Breaks Down Detailing George Floyd's Death | The 11th Hour | MSNBC. Retrieved 2024-05-01 – via www.youtube.com.
  28. ^ "Supreme Court of the United States - DERAY MCKESSON vs JOHN DOE" (PDF).
  29. ^ "The First Amendment Freedom of Assembly as a Racial Project". www.yalelawjournal.org. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  30. ^ Beydoun, Khaled A.; Hansford, Justin (2017-11-15). "Opinion | The F.B.I.'s Dangerous Crackdown on 'Black Identity Extremists'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  31. ^ Schwartz, Oscar (2020-08-12). "After the protests, lingering trauma: the scars of 'non-lethal' weapons". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  32. ^ "Reparations-Now-Toolkit-FINAL" (PDF).
  33. ^ "Justin Hansford on Human Rights and the Movement for Black Lives | Yale Law School". law.yale.edu. 2018-11-30. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  34. ^ "International Human Rights Bodies Provide a Case for Reparations | ACLU". American Civil Liberties Union. 2019-09-23. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
  35. ^ "Our Team". African-American Redress Network. 2021-12-07. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  36. ^ "Reparations for Racial Discrimination in the U.S. | University Life". universitylife.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  37. ^ "Letter to Evanston City Council Regarding Reparations Measure | Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center". thurgoodmarshallcenter.howard.edu. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
  38. ^ "Justin Hansford's Remarks at the Opening of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD)". @. 2023-05-31. Retrieved 2024-04-28.
  39. ^ America ReFramed | The Cost of Inheritance | Season 12 | Episode 1 | PBS. Retrieved 2024-04-28 – via www.pbs.org.
  40. ^ "Home - Justice4Garvey". Justice4Garvey. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  41. ^ "Black History Matters: Why President Obama Should Pardon Marcus Garvey". The Root. Retrieved 2017-02-27.
  42. ^ "Using the Human Rights Framework for Racial Justice: A Conversation with Justin Hansford | Global Studies Center". www.ucis.pitt.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  43. ^ "Wiley Rein Hosts Luncheon Featuring Professor Justin Hansford, in Celebration of Black History Month". www.wiley.law. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  44. ^ "Justin Hansford Biography". pdaspeakers.com. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
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