Lani Guinier

From KeyWiki

Lani Guinier is the daughter of the late Ewart Guinier. Born April 19, 1950), Guinier is an American lawyer, scholar and civil rights activist. The first African-American woman tenured professor at Harvard Law School, Guinier's work includes professional responsibilities of public lawyers, the relationship between democracy and the law, the role of race and gender in the political process, equity in college admissions, and affirmative action.^[1]

Background

Born in New York City, Guinier is the daughter of a Jewish mother, Eugenia Paprin, and the Jamaican-born scholar Ewart Guinier, who also served as Harvard professor (and chair) of the Afro-American Studies Department in 1969. Guinier has said that she wanted to be a civil rights lawyer since she was twelve years old. After graduating from Radcliffe College in 1971 and Yale Law School in 1974, she clerked for Judge Damon Keith then served as special assistant to then Assistant Attorney General Drew S. Days in the Civil Rights Division in the Carter Administration. In 1981, after Ronald Reagan took office, she joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as an assistant counsel, eventually becoming head of its Voting Rights project.^[2]

Controversy

Guinier is probably most well-known as President Bill Clinton's nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in April 1993. A combination of political factors led to her nomination being withdrawn in June 1993. Guinier was attacked by Clint Bolick of the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page as one of "Clinton's Quota Queens".^[3]

Pro Democracy Convention

The Pro Democracy Convention was held June 29th To July 1, 2001. It started with a National Town Hall Meeting, Annenberg Center, University of Pennsylvania.

Come to a National Town Hall Meeting! Hear speakers representing a wide range of communities, including academics, labor leaders,

lawyers, organizers, and elected officials, speak out about Election 2000, recommendations for electoral reform, and how we all can build the movement to expand democracy in the U.S. Partial List of Invited Speakers and Presenters:

• John B. Anderson, Center for Voting & Democracy
• Melanie Campbell, National Coalition for Black Civic Participation
• Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO
• Representative John Conyers (Michigan)
• Ron Daniels, Center for Constitutional Rights
• Representative Chaka Fattah (Pennsylvania)
• Margaret Fung, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
• Ted Glick, Independent Progressive Politics Network
• Lani Guinier, Harvard University
• Cheri Honkala, Kensington Welfare Rights Union
• Reverend Jesse Jackson, Rainbow-PUSH Coalition
• Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas
• Representative Jim Leach (Iowa)
• William Lucy, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
• Henry Nicholas, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees - District 1199C
• Reverend Al Sharpton, National Action Network
• Hillary Shelton, NAACP
• Nadine Smith, Equality Florida
• Representative Nydia Velazquez (New York)^[4]

The Nation

In 2009, the Editorial board of The Nation^[5] included Lani Guinier, Richard Falk, Deepak Bhargava, Norman Birnbaum, Barbara Ehrenreich, Frances FitzGerald, Eric Foner, Philip Green, Tom Hayden, Tony Kushner, Elinor Langer, Deborah Meier, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, Victor Navasky, Pedro Antonio Noguera, Richard Parker, Michael Pertschuk, Elizabeth Pochoda, Marcus Raskin, Kristina Rizga, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, David Weir and Roger Wilkins.

References