Executive Director Dr. David Fleer joined a national panel of law school faculty for the final session of Roger Williams University School of Law’s Integrating Doctrine and Diversity speaker series — a year-long conversation about how to teach civil rights, equity, and inclusion across the legal curriculum. Co-sponsored by the City University of New York School of Law, Berkeley Law, JURIST, and the Anti-Racist Development Institute, the session was devoted to the life and work of Attorney Fred D. Gray and how his more than seventy years of advocacy might be embedded in legal education today.
Opened by Dean Gregory Bowman and moderated by Assistant Dean Nicole Dyszlewski of Roger Williams Law, the panel brought Dr. Fleer together with three Fred Gray Institute Fellows: Jonathan Entin, the David L. Brennan Professor Emeritus of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Aisha Bell Hardaway, Professor of Law and Director of the Social Justice Institute at Case Western Reserve; and Jeffrey Baker, Associate Dean of Experiential Learning and Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. The conversation traced Attorney Gray’s landmark cases — from Gayle v. Browder and the Montgomery Bus Boycott to NAACP v. Alabama, Gomillion v. Lightfoot, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study settlement — and asked how those cases continue to shape constitutional law, voting rights, and clinical pedagogy. Dr. Fleer shared the founding story of the Fred Gray Institute, commissioned by Attorney Gray in August 2023 through a Futures Committee that included Bryan Stevenson, and the three pillars — collaborate, convene, and educate — that guide its work today. Watch the full conversation below.