The Washington Bar Association, Inc. 2021 Virtual
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THE WASHINGTON BAR ASSOCIATION, INC. 2021 VIRTUAL ANNUAL CONFERENCE, MEETING & DR. J. CLAY SMITH EQUAL JUSTICE LECTURE & HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY “THE CHALLENGE OF BLACKNESS IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: CONTINUING THE STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE AND EXPAND THE HOUSTONIAN JURISPRUDENCE OF EQUAL JUSTICE” Tuesday, June 10, 2021 The Nation’s Capital Washington, District of Columbia In the Year 244 of Our Nation WBA PAST PRESIDENTS 1st George E.C Hayes, Esq. 1925-1928 26th Ruth Hankins-Nesbitt, Esq. 1974-1976 2nd Sylvester McLaurin, Esq. 1928-1930 27th Melvin J. Washington, Esq. 1976-1978 3rd Charles H. Houston, Esq. 1930-1932 28th J. Clay Smith, Jr., Esq. 1978-1980 4th Charles E. Robinson, Esq. 1932-1933 29th Thomas A. Duckenfield, Esq. 1980-1982 5th Augustus Gray, Esq. 1933-1934 30th Iverson O. Mitchell, III, Esq. 1982-1984 6th Thurman L. Dodson, Esq. 1934-1936 31st John A. Turner, Sr., Esq. 1984-1986 7th William L. Houston, Esq. 1936-1938 32nd Nathaniel H. Speights, Esq. 1986-1988 8th Henry L. Johnson, Jr., Esq. 1938-1940 33rd Keith W. Watters, Esq. 1988-1990 9th James A. Cobb, Esq. 1940-1942 34th Wendell W. Webster, Esq. 1990-1991 10th Richard L. Atkinson, Esq. 1942-1944 35th Belva D. Newsome, Esq. 1991-1993 11th George A. Parker, Esq. 1944-1946 36th Michael M. Hicks, Esq. 1993-1995 12th William A. Powell, Esq. 1946-1948 37th Ronald C. Crump, Esq. 1995-1997 13th Maurice R. Weeks, Esq. 1948-1950 38th Michael S. Rosier, Esq. 1997-1999 14th Leroy H. McGivney, Esq. 1950-1952 39th Donald A. Thigpen, Jr., Esq. 1999-2001 15th Joel D. Blackwell, Esq. 1952-1954 40th Kim M. Keenan, Esq. 2001-2003 16th William S. Thompson, Esq. 1954-1956 41st Felicia L. Chambers, Esq. 2003-2005 17th George B. Parks, Esq. 1956-1958 42nd Kevin D. Judd, Esq. 2005-2007 18th DeLong Harris, Esq. 1958-1960 43rd Robert L. Bell, Esq. 2007-2008 19th E. Lewis Farrell, Esq. 1960-1962 44th Ronald C. Jessamy, Sr., Esq. 2008-2010 20th John D. Fauntleroy, Sr., Esq. 1962-1963 45th Iris McCollum Green, Esq. 2010-2012 21st Frederick H. Evans, Esq. 1964-1966 46th William “Billy” Martin, Esq. 2012-2014 22nd James W. Cobb, Esq. 1966-1968 47th Karen E. Evans, Esq. 2014-2016 23rd Alexander Benton, Esq. 1968-1970 48th Natalie S. Walker, Esq. 2016-2018 th 24th Bruce R. Harrison, Esq. 1970-1972 49 Nicole Austin-Hillery, Esq. 2018-2019 th 25th John McDaniel, Jr., Esq. 1972-1974 50 Henry E. Floyd, Jr., Esq. 2019-2020 THE WASHINGTON BAR ASSOCIATION, INC. (An Affiliate of the National Bar Association) Founded 1925 (Incorporated May 26, 1926) THE FOUNDERS Ulysses Simpson Garnes Isaiah Lisemby George E.C. Hayes Louis Rothschild Mehlinger Charles Hamilton Houston Charles E. Robinson J. Franklin Wilson OFFICERS 2020-2021 James Anthony “Tony” Towns, Esquire, President & CEO Kendra Perkins Norwood, Esquire, President-Elect Dionna Maria Lewis, Esquire, Vice President Darnellena “Christie” Burnett, Esquire, Treasurer Hon. Arien Cannon, Secretary BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2020- 2021 James Anthony “Tony” Towns, Esquire, President & CEO Kendra Perkins Norwood, Esquire, President-Elect Hon. Errol Arthur Darnellena “Christie” Burnett, Esquire Hon. Arien Cannon Alexandra Cohen, Esquire Vincent H. Cohen, Jr., Esquire Akua Coppock, Esquire Eric Glover, Esquire Brenda Keels, Esquire Dionna M. Lewis, Esquire Hon. H. Alexander Manuel Alfreda Robinson, Esquire Wendell W. Webster, Esquire COUNCIL OF PAST PRESIDENTS Henry E. Floyd, Jr., Esquire Nicole Austin-Hillery, Esquire Natalie S. Walker, Esquire Karen E. Evans, Esquire William R. “Billy” Martin, Esquire WBA Historian Robert L. Bell, Esquire 2 WASHINGTON BAR ASSOCIATION, INC. 2021 ANNUAL CONFERENCE Thursday, June 10, 2021 ANNUAL CONFERENCE 5:00 p.m. Registration, Opening Remarks and Greetings 5:00 – 5:15 p.m. Presidential Welcome, Invocation, Greetings & Acknowledgment of 2021 Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion Recipients 5:15 – 5:25 p.m. Opening Address by The Hon. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delegate, U.S. House of Representatives (D.C.) DR. J. CLAY SMITH MEMORIAL EQUAL JUSTICE LECTURE & SCHOLARSHIP AWARD 5:30 – 6:00 p.m. Dr. Genna Rae McNeil, Fourth Annual WBA Annual Dr. J. Clay Smith Memorial Equal Justice Lecture “The death of Frederick Douglass in 1895 marked the end of one era and the beginning of a new era for the black lawyer, for Douglass had been the primary and most forceful voice of black America heard by the judiciary, even though he was not a lawyer.” J. Clay Smith, Jr., Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer 1844-1944 (1993) 6:00 – 6:10 p.m. Fourth Annual Dr. J. Clay Smith Memorial Equal Justice Scholar’s Award ANNUAL MEETING, HALL OF FAME CEREMONY, AWARDS PRESENTATION 6:10 – 6:35 p.m. Annual Meeting, Elections, Adoption of Resolutions 6:35 – 6:45 p.m. INTERMISSION 6:45 – 7:15 p.m. Hall of Fame Inductions & Awards Ceremony 7:15 – 7:30 p.m. 2020-2021 Presidential Awards & Final Remarks of WBA 51st President Tony Towns 7:30 – 7:35 p.m. Installation of Officers 7:35 – 7:40 p.m. Passing of Gavel and Remarks by WBA 52nd President Kendra Perkins Norwood 7:40 – 8:00 p.m. DJ Message-Music Reception ADJOURNMENT 3 CALL TO COMMEMORATION We are pleased and honored to greet you on behalf of the Washington Bar Association. We are equally as happy to open our 2021 Virtual Annual Conference with the theme: “THE CHALLENGE OF BLACKNESS IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: CONTINUING THE STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE AND EXPAND THE HOUSTONIAN JURISPRUDENCE OF EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW” Since 1925, the Washington Bar Association has provided leadership in the struggle to make the promise of equal justice under law a reality for all. Prior to the emergence of Houstonian Jurisprudence, the reality of justice for Black Americans was haunted by the specter of the Black Codes, as well as the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) cases. This was true notwithstanding the outcome of the Civil War and the existence of the Civil War Amendments. No one has articulated the enduring challenge of blackness in our American Democracy better than Frederick Douglass in the 19th Century: “[W]hether ‘American justice, American liberty, American civilization, American law, and American Christianity could be made to include and protect alike forever all American citizens in the rights which have been guaranteed to them by the organic and fundamental laws of the land.’” Rayford Logan, The Betrayal of the Negro: From Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson (1965) (quoting Frederick Douglass). Lest we forget, in 1895, we have the death of Douglass and the birth of a beacon of equal justice named Charles Hamilton Houston (“CHH”). It was the symbolic passing of an equal justice advocacy baton to black lawyers to understand, embrace and pursue equal justice principles under law, which was later exemplified by the work and life of Charles Hamilton Houston, particularly, his admonition that: “There should be a three-ringed fight going on at all times.” Since this peculiar nadir around the turn of the 20th century, from Plessy, black folk and friends stood up, especially black lawyers, and organized and prepared themselves for making our own case for equal justice under law for all. It was this attention to organization, preparation and struggle that took us from Plessy to Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Yet, despite the life, works and victories of the WBA’s Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion of Merit recipients, such as, Thurgood Marshall, Robert Carter, Constance Baker Motley, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy I. Height, John Lewis, and many others, we are confronted in 2021 with state legislatures around the country engaged in throw-back voter suppression tactics designed to frustrate and hinder voters of color. It appears that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision gutting the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), resurrected the latent jurisprudence of the Dred Scott and Plessy, and forced us to confront once again Douglass’ 19th century question in the 21st century. In other words, can we expect and get equal justice in American Democracy without Houstonian Jurisprudence? That is the challenge of blackness in American today. CHH Medallion of Merit recipient Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent in Shelby County states succinctly the assault on Houstonian Jurisprudence, as follows: “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” Moreover, Vernon E. Jordan, another CHH Medallion of Merit recipient, tells a most revealing story of how white supremacy impacted black citizens in Marengo County, Alabama before there was a Voting Rights Act of 1965. Let’s listen to Vernon Jordan tell: the true story of a 92-year-old black man who registered to vote just days after passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 * * * * When that old man, dressed in his Sunday best, reached the registration official’s desk, the federal examiner asked him: “Why didn’t you ever register before?” And the old man answered “I never believed in putting 4 myself in the way of trouble-a-comin’.” He was then asked: “Why are you here now, after 92 years?” And he responded: “I am here today after 92 years ‘cause trouble ain’t-a-comin’ like it used to did.” Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Civil Rights: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, 14 Col. Human R. L. Rev. 1, 4 (1982). Thus, similar to the adverse impact of Dred Scott and Plessy, Shelby County is a harbinger from the U.S. Supreme Court that an assault on Houstonian Jurisprudence is underway and that “trouble is-a-comin'” once again.