Image via WikipediaThe Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture
Presents the Sixth Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium
Just and Unjust Laws
The Core of the Civil Rights Struggle
The Sixth Annual MLK Jr. Symposium, On MLK Day: 7 p.m., Monday, January 17, 2011
At the AT&T Performing Arts Center Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora St.
On its sixth anniversary, the Dallas Institute's MLK Jr. Symposium will consider one of the most crucial but often neglected aspects of the American Civil Rights Movement: the law. Rev. King insisted from the beginning that the fundamental challenge of the movement was to make a necessary distinction--between just and unjust laws. In his words, "A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law." This distinction was repeatedly tested in the dangerous struggles of the 1950's and 60's, when activists willingly went to jail in defiance of segregation's unjust laws. But who worked behind the scenes to free them? Who fought the legal battles while protestors filled the streets--and the jails? The story of resisting Jim Crow while fighting to institute just laws once and for all is rich, many-layered, and compelling.General Admission - $20
Dallas ISD Teachers, Educators & Students - $10
Groups of 10 or more, $15 per person
GROUP SALES: Contact Ashley Delaney, the Group Sales Coordinator at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, Phone: 214.978.2879.
Jeffrey Toobin - A high-profile senior analyst for CNN and staff writer for The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin is one of the country's most esteemed experts on politics, media and the law. Toobin has provided analysis on some of the most important events of our time, including the O.J. Simpson trial, the Kenneth Starr investigation and impeachment of President Bill Clinton, and the disputed Florida recount of the 2000 presidential election. The author of critically acclaimed New York Times best seller, Toobin's 2007 book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, delves into the historical, political and personal inner workings of the Supreme Court and its justices to reveal the inside story of one of America's most mysterious and powerful institutions. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Fred Gray - Veteran civil rights attorney Fred Gray's legal career began in the midst of America's modern day civil rights movement. With a quiet demeanor, strong determination and secret commitment made in college, he vowed, "to become a lawyer, return to Alabama, and destroy everything segregated I could find." Gray began his legal career as a sole practitioner, less than a year out of law school, and at age twenty-four, he represented Mrs. Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus, the action that initiated the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Gray was also Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s first civil rights lawyer. This was the beginning of a legal career that now spans over fifty years. Gray was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and is a graduate of the Nashville Christian Institute, Alabama State University, and Case Western Reserve University.
