The Life and Work of Attorney Fred D. Gray: Embedding Advocacy Histories in Legal Learning
Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series presents The Life and Work of Attorney Fred D. Gray: Embedding Advocacy Histories in Legal Learning
The career of civil rights attorney Fred D. Gray is worth teaching about.
Attorney Gray is one of the most consequential civil rights attorneys in American legal history. From representing Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to litigating school desegregation and voting rights cases that reshaped constitutional doctrine, Attorney Gray’s work helped dismantle Jim Crow and transform the meaning of equal protection under law.
This free online session will examine ways in which we can teach about and celebrate the monumental career of Attorney Fred Gray across the curriculum. Panelists Prof. Jeffrey R. Baker, Prof. Jonathan Entin, and Prof. Ayesha Bell Hardaway will reflect on Gray’s strategic brilliance, professional courage, and long arc of constitutional advocacy. The conversation will explore what Gray's career reveals about the lawyer’s role in advancing structural change and give examples of ways in which to integrate Attorney Gray’s cases and ethos into our classrooms.
The panelists will be joined by Dr. David Fleer of the Fred D. Gray Institute for Human and Civil Rights and Moderator Nicole P. Dyszlewski. The discussion will consider how centering the life and work of Attorney Fred Gray in our classrooms can deepen students’ understanding of doctrine, professional responsibility, and the lived realities behind appellate opinions.
This session is designed for legal educators who seek to ground doctrinal and experiential teaching in the historical and human dimensions of constitutional development while honoring the extraordinary contributions of one of the nation’s leading civil rights attorneys.
This event is co-sponsored by Roger Williams University School of Law, City University of New York School of Law, Berkeley Law, JURIST, and Antiracist Development Institute.
3:00 -4:00 pm EST
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In 2021, RWU Law began sponsoring an ongoing Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series in collaboration with CUNY School of Law and JURIST. Each previous installment has been attended by hundreds of legal education professionals from across the country.
View Previous Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series
FEATURED SPEAKERS
Jeffrey R. Baker
Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Clinical Professor of Law, The University of Alabama School of Law
Jonathan L. Entin, JD
David L. Brennan Professor Emeritus of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Dr. David Fleer
The Fred D. Gray Institute
Ayesha Bell Hardaway, JD
Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Ayesha Bell Hardaway, JD, is a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University where she serves as Director of the Law School’s Social Justice Law Center and its Criminal Defense Clinic. Professor Hardaway also serves as Director of the University’s Social Justice Institute.
As Director of the Social Justice Law Center and of the University’s Social Justice Institute, Professor Hardaway serves students and the broader community in the exploration of pressing social justice issues through research, community partnerships and dialogue, engagement with local and national thought-leaders, and curricular offerings.
Professor Hardaway’s academic career also aligns with her strong commitment to serve the community. She has represented individuals who are unable to hire private counsel as a clinician in Case Law School’s Health Clinic, Civil Litigation Clinic, and Criminal Clinic. As Director of the Criminal Clinic, Professor Hardaway uses a client-centered pedagogical framework to instruct and supervise third-year law students.
Locally, she has been inducted into the Shaker Heights Schools for Foundation Hall of Fame and the Case Western Reserve University School of Law Society of Benchers. Professor Hardaway has also been recognized as the Black Law Students Sankofa Professor of the Year, Educator of the Year by 100 Black Men of Greater Cleveland, Inc., and as Outstanding Faculty Student Development by Case Western Reserve University. She also received the NAACP Cleveland Branch President’s Award and the Trailblazer Award from the Norman S. Minor Bar Association.
Professor Hardaway’s contributions and engagement extend beyond the Cleveland area. In 2024, Professor Hardaway was chosen to serve as a Gray Institute Fellow for the Fred D. Gray Institute for Human and Civil Rights. The following year, Professor Hardaway was selected to be a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Racial Justice at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Professor Hardaway’s research and scholarship interests include the intersection of race with constitutional law, criminal law, policing, and civil litigation. Her scholarship includes the publication of major articles in the Georgetown Law Journal, Boston University Law Review, and Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties. Professor Hardaway has written on many topics including reparations, labor law, the Thirteenth Amendment, and policing.
Her work on policing has also made her an influential voice in the field. Hardaway has made several appearances on CNN, including The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, and on ESPN’s The Undefeated, and was quoted in papers ranging from USA Today to Rolling Stone magazine. Professor Hardaway has also been asked to opine on other high-profile incidents in outlets such as The Associated Press, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.
MEET THE MODERATOR
Nicole P. Dyszlewski is one of the editors of Integrating Doctrine and Diversity: Inclusion and Equity in the Law School Classroom. She currently serves as a Professor and the Director of Special Programs, Academic Affairs at Roger Williams University School of Law. She received a B.A. from Hofstra University, a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and the Rhode Island State Bar. Her areas of interest are mass incarceration, access to justice, and systems of race and gender inequality in law. Nicole was the 2020 recipient of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) Volunteer Service Award and the 2015 recipient of the AALL Emerging Leader Award.
SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS
Persons who, because of a special need or condition, would like to request an accommodation for an event should contact Kara Dalessio, kdalessio@rwu.edu, as soon as possible, but no later than 72 hours before the event, so that appropriate arrangements can be made.