Past Events

Chicago Ald. Leslie Hairston

March 13, 2009:

“Challenges for Today’s Labor Movement: 115 Years After the Pullman Strike”

Daniel B. Cornfield, Co-editor, Labor in the New Urban Battlegrounds: Local Solidarity in a Global Economy, Cornell University Press (2007)

Professor of Sociology, Vanderbilt University

Melvin Maclin, Vice President, United Electrical Workers Local 1110

(In December 2008, members of Local 1110 staged a successful sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors to protest the plant’s closing and layoffs.

March 13, 2008:

“Challenging Racially Motivated Prosecutions: The Jena 6 Story”

Catherine Crawford, Northwestern Law School

Leon Despres, Herb Kraus

March 13, 2007:

“150 Years After His Birth: What Can Clarence Darrow’s Legacy Contribute to Our Challenging Times?”

Ed Yohnka, Communications Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

March 13, 2006:

“What is Truth in History and in Law?”

Gary T. Johnson, President, Chicago Historical Society

March 13, 2005:

“80 Years After the Scopes Trial: The Debate Continues”

Andrew Petto, Editor, Reports of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE).

NCSE promotes efforts to keep evolution in the science classroom and “scientific creationism” out.)

Andy Norman, J.D., Partner, Mauck and Baker (Mauck and Baker’s practice includes religious liberties law.)

Rob Warden - Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University

March 13, 2004:

“Guantanamo: No Attorney for the “Damned”

Douglass Cassel, Director, International Center for Human Rights, Northwestern University

March 13, 2003:

“Where Do We Go From Here?”

Lawrence Marshall, Legal Director, Center on Wrongful Convictions, Northwestern University School of Law.

Also, a special recognition to individuals who have spent their legal careers representing men and women on death row.

March 13, 2002:

“John P. Altgeld: One of the Rarest Souls Who Ever Lived”

William Adelman, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois, Vice President, Illinois Labor History Society

March 13, 2001:

“Look Out Kid, It’s Something You Did: Is There Still a Role for Rehabilitation of Juvenile Offenders?”

Bernardine Dohrn, Director, Child and Family Justice Center, Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University School of Law

March 13, 1999

“The Dilemma of the Prosecution and Defense Counsel: Who Do I Serve? Two Perspectives”

Michael J. Morrissey, Chief, Felony Trial Division, Office of Cook County Public Defender

Joel D. Bertocchi (invited), Solicitor General of Illinois, Former Assistant U.S. Attorney

Herb Kraus, Gary Johnson and William Campbell Jr.

March 13, 1997

“Crime: Its Causes and Treatment”

Thomas Geraghty, Director, Bluhm Legal Clinic, and Professor, Northwestern University School of Law

Clarence Darrow (a tape of a 1931 interview with Darrow on crime and its causes)

March 13, 1996

“Capital Punishment: Whom Does it Punish?”

A Discussion of the Death Penalty and Its Disparate Application to Racial Minorities

Norval Morris, Julius Kreeger Professor Emeritus of Law and Criminology, University of Chicago School of Law

Honorable R. Eugene Pincham, Retired Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court

Moderator: Jack Doppelt, Acting Dean, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University

March 13, 1995

Debate: “Should Juvenile Be Tried, Convicted and Sentenced as Adults When Charged with Serious Crimes?”

Affirmative: Don Mizerk, Chief Executive Offiocer, Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office

Negative: Randall Stone, Director, Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, University of Chicago Law School (Former Cook County Public Defender)

Respondents: Whitney Young Magnet High School Interscholastic Policy Debate Team

March 13, 1994

“The American Jury: Darrow’s Palladium of Justice”

Moderator: Albert W. Alschuler, Wilson-Dickerson Professor at the University of Chicago Law School

Commentators: William J. Campbell, Jr., and others

March 13, 1993

“Victims of Our Criminal Justice System”

Albert W. Alschuler, Wilson-Dickerson Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School

And a dramatic excerpt from Keenan Heise’s “Clarence Darrow in Hell”

March 13, 1991

Debate: “The First Amendment in Wartime”

Jay Miller, Executive Director, American Civil Liberties Union

Lt. Col. Paul Sjordal (ret.), Former Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs, Midwest Region

March 13, 1990

Debate: “Is Racist Speech Free Speech?”

Affirmative: Jane Wicher, Staff  Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois

Negative: Debra Evenson, Professor, DePaul College of Law; President, National Lawyer’s Guild

March 13, 1989

“Capital Punishment: Is It a Stain on our Democracy?”

With a special tribute in memory of Arthur Weinberg, editor, Attorney for the Damned; co-editor Verdicts Out of Court; co-author, A Sentimental Rebel