Cooley campuses mark MLKDay with programs

By Steve Thorpe Legal News Dr. Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," will speak at Thomas M. Cooley Law School's Lansing campus as they mark Martin Luther King Day with a program focusing on the challenges faced by African Americans in the legal system. The school's Auburn Hills campus will be hosting its own event the day before featuring Dawud Walid, director, Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Stephanie Jones, president of the Straker Bar Association, talking about social disparities. The event will be held today from 2-4 p.m. Also in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Cooley students, staff and faculty will volunteer from 9 a.m. to noon at various community organizations in the Oakland County area, including the Baldwin Center and Grace Centers of Hope in Pontiac. The Lansing event on Tuesday, Jan. 17, will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. on the sixth floor of the Cooley Temple Conference Center. Professor Alexander will discuss her book in which she argues that rampant incarceration and the stigma of being convicted of a felony have allowed old methods of discrimination to flourish in a new guise. Alexander, a civil rights attorney and Ohio State law professor, will share how the consequences of a criminal conviction lead to barriers when individuals seek employment and how these barriers adversely affect communities, families and taxpayers. In her book, Alexander contends that: * More African Americans are disenfranchised today (as felons) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that deny the right to vote based on race. * In Chicago, the number of black men with a felony record is 80 percent of the adult male workforce. * The "War on Drugs" has been less against major dealers selling dangerous drugs than against low-level marijuana offenders. Marijuana accounted for nearly 80 percent of the growth of drug arrests in the 1990s. These numbers, coupled with the hurdles felons face after release, have created an environment where it's extremely difficult for them to reenter society successfully, she argues. The book had a modest initial release but is now on its tenth printing. The Lansing event will also feature representatives of the Fair Chance Coalition, which is campaigning for a law that would prohibit employers from inquiring about felony convictions. In addition to celebrating Martin Luther King Day, Alexander is joining the Legislative Black Caucus at the Capitol on Jan. 17 to kick off the "Ban the Box" campaign. The Fair Chance Coalition is working on the campaign to pass legislation that would take the box off job applications that asks, "Have you been convicted of a felony?" Published: Mon, Jan 16, 2012

––––––––––––––––––––
 Subscribe to the Legal News!
 http://www.legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available