A Conversation About the Role Race, Gender and Class Play in Elections
Original Program Date :
Length: 1:01:57
Race, gender, class and their intersection have a profound impact on the electoral process. The panel will share their insights, knowledge and experiences on the intricate dynamics that come into play, what's at stake and what reforms are necessary.
Mr. Dees serves as Policy Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center. He received his B.A. n Classical and Ancient Studies from The University of Florida and his J.D. from The University of Alabama School of Law.
Jennifer Taylor is a Lecturer in Law, Clinical Lecturer in Law, Associate Research Scholar in Law, and Executive Director of the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School. From 2010 to 2022, Taylor served as an Attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama, where she represented incarcerated and indigent clients and litigated challenges to abusive conditions of confinement, capital punishment, wrongful conviction, and excessive sentencing. She also spearheaded narrative content for exhibits in The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice; led research and writing that yielded multiple public education reports on racial history and mass incarceration; and supported community engagement through the Community Remembrance Project. Taylor served as a Visiting Researcher at the Wits Justice Project in Johannesburg, South Africa for several months in 2014–2015, and she interned with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a law student. A 2010 graduate of Yale Law School, Taylor took part in the Prison Legal Services and New Haven Legal Assistance Clinics and co-convened the Liman Workshop. She received an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity from Stanford University.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Duke and law degree from UCLA, Professor Fair worked as an associate with Bryan, Cave, McPheeters & McRoberts in Los Angeles. In 1987, he joined the UCLA law faculty as a Lecturer and co-directed its Academic Support Program. He served as a commissioner of the California State Bar Commission on Minority Access to the Legal Profession and as a Public Counsel legal services volunteer.
Professor Fair joined the Alabama law faculty in 1991. He was named the Thomas E. Skinner Professor of Law in 2000. He is a frequent member of the law school commencement hooding team (selected by students) and has been named the law school’s Outstanding Faculty Member (selected by students) multiple times. He has also received the University’s Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award given each year by the National Alumni Association. Professor Fair has served as the faculty advisor to the Jessup International Moot Court Team, Black Law Students Association, Outlaw, Law Democrats, American Constitution Society, and other student groups. Professor Fair has also taught law courses at Seattle University, the University of Tennessee, the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and The Australian National University.
Professor Fair has held several administrative posts at the Law School and the University. At the Law School, from 1997 to 2010, he directed the University of Fribourg/UA Law cooperative exchange (the Swiss Program). He served as the Director of Diversity and International Programs in 2007, 2011, and 2012, and Associate Dean for Special Programs from 2008-2010, supervising international, diversity, and public interest programs. He also served as an Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University from 1994 to 1997. Professor Fair is the author of Notes of a Racial Caste Baby: Colorblindness and the End of Affirmative Action (NYU Press 1997), and numerous articles on inequality in the United States. Professor Fair’s research agenda remains focused on equality theory under the Fourteenth Amendment, with the central theme that equal protection jurisprudence has lost its anti-caste moorings, rendering it largely obsolete to address significant forms of American caste. He is a member of the American Law Institute and has served on ABA, AALS, and LSAC committees. He has served on numerous boards, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, Equal Justice Initiative, and Alabama Appleseed.