Thurgood Marshall Memorial Lecture
RWU Law welcomes Dr. Karen Korematsu, the Founder and Executive Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute and the daughter of the late civil rights icon, Fred Korematsu, as the Thurgood Marshall Memorial Lecture Keynote Address Speaker. Since her father’s passing in 2005, Karen has carried on his legacy as a national public speaker and educator, traveling throughout the country advocating for civil liberties, social justice, civics, and ethnic studies education. Her message encompasses Fred’s story, legal history, the relevance of his case to today’s issues and the promotion of Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution on January 30th in perpetuity for all fifty states.
She has presented to K-12 schools, colleges, universities, law schools, national and state conferences, including the National Judicial College, Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and the South Carolina State Judicial Conference. She has signed on to amicus briefs in several cases opposing violations of constitutional rights arising after 9/11, including Odah v. United States, Turkman v. Ashcroft, Hedges v. Obama, and Hassan v. City of New York and Trump v. Hawaii.
In 2015, Karen was inducted as the first non-lawyer member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. She serves on the board of directors of Advancing Justice-AAJC and NAPABA Law Foundation. She serves on the National Advisory Board of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law. She has been interviewed on radio, podcasts and TV. Her Op/Ed’s have appeared in the NY Times and the Washington Post. Karen has received numerous awards and honors including GMNY 2015 Isidore Starr Award, Muslim Advocates-Voice of Freedom Award, the ACLU Chief Justice Earl Warren Civil Liberties Award, and in 2017 was a recipient of the Key to the City of Dearborn, Michigan by the Mayor of Dearborn.
Karen received her first honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Michael’s College in Burlington, Vermont, May 2019. She received her second honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Haverford College in Pennsylvania, May 2022.
Special Accommodations
Persons who, because of a special need or condition, would like to request an accommodation for an event should contact the Office of the Dean - Programs & Initiatives, as soon as possible, but no later than 72 hours before the event, so that appropriate arrangements can be made. lawevents@rwu.edu