Lani Guinier to speak Wednesday as keynote of MLK Week events

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Central Michigan University will feature a speech by a longtime proponent of civil rights in honor of the efforts of Martin Luther King Jr.

Lani Guinier will give a keynote speech at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium. Guinier became the first African American woman to be appointed to a tenured professorship at Harvard Law School in 1998.

“Lani Guinier will be talking about rethinking race and class in America,” said Keisha Janney, Multicultural Academic Student Services Assistant Director.

Guinier  graduated from Yale Law School in 1974. She served as special assistant to Assistant Attorney General Drew S. Days in the Civil Rights Division in President Jimmy Carter’s Administration.

In 1981, she joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as an assistant counsel, where she rose to become head of its Voting Rights project.

Guinier was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. After facing political opposition, especially toward her perceived views on voting and affirmative action, Clinton withdrew the nomination.

Guinier was Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School for 10 years before going to Harvard in 1998. She has lectured at law schools and universities including Yale, Stanford, New York University and the University of Chicago. In 2007, she was a visiting professor at Columbia Law School, and in 2009, she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Guinier’s publications are six books including “The Tyranny of the Majority,”  law review and journal articles and many newspaper editorials.

Southfield senior Eris Taylor said he will be attending this year’s events after having positive experiences in the past.

“I plan on attending the brunch, the walk and vigil and the MLK charity bowling event,” Taylor said. “The experience [last year] overall was great. I appreciated the diversity and the opportunity to be with fellow students to come together for one cause.”

Last year’s MLK Week events brought in more than 2,000 students, Janney said.

“We had to turn some people away from events due to lack of seating and fire code,” she said.

This year, she expects even more students and said she hopes they walk away with a deeper appreciation for the work done by King and other members of the Civil Rights Movement.