Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture
Please join Roger Williams University School of Law for our Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture featuring Keynote Speaker Justice Melissa A. Long, Rhode Island Supreme Court.
Melissa A. Long was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court on January 11, 2021. Before her elevation to the Supreme Court, Justice Long served for over three years as an Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court, where she was assigned to be in charge of, or to assist on, various calendars in Providence County. Immediately prior to joining the bench, she was Deputy Secretary of State at the Rhode Island Department of State from 2015-2017. Justice Long currently chairs the Rhode Island Committee on Racial & Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and is an advisory board member of the National Consortium on Racial & Ethnic Fairness in the Courts.
Justice Long received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia and earned her law degree at the George Mason University School of Law. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marcus D. Williams of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Virginia and thereafter devoted her legal career to public service and public interest law.
A Washington, D.C., native, Justice Long is the daughter of two U.S. Army veterans who married six months before the Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia. Justice Long grew up on and near military bases in El Paso, Texas; Alexandria, Virginia; Schweinfurt, Germany; and Seoul, South Korea.
She and her family have resided in Providence since 1999.
Reception at 1pm following keynote address.
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