2021 National Convention: Toward a Third Reconstruction

The promise of racial equality remains demonstrably unfulfilled in America. With white nationalists storming the Capitol and racially motivated violent extremism on the rise, COVID-19 ravaging communities of color, and police officers continuing to kill Black people without penalty, the past year has illuminated the myriad ways in which racism permeates every corner of our society. Calls have intensified for a “Third Reconstruction” that would both complete and expand upon the work started in the wake of the Civil War and again by the Civil Rights Movement. What would a successful Reconstruction look like and what policies must be implemented or laws enacted to make it a reality? What structural and institutional changes are necessary? What lessons can we learn from international efforts at racial healing and our own previous attempts to redress wrongs done to racial communities? And how can any of these changes become reality given our increasingly polarized society?

Panelists:
Adam Serwer, Staff Writer, The Atlantic, Moderator
Maggie Blackhawk, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
Dorothy A. Brown, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Emory Law
Katherine Franke, James L. Dohr Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Ian Haney López, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, UC Berkeley School of Law