November 9–10, 2017
Mondale Hall, University of Minnesota Law School

Presented by Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice
and the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity

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Please see the official Summit for Civil Rights website at www.summitforcivilrights.org for details & registration.
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Agenda | Accommodations | Featured Speakers

Please join Vice President Walter Mondale, Congressman Keith Ellison, and other civil rights, labor, political, and faith leaders for a conference about building a movement to end racial segregation in the United States.

Sponsored by the Kresge Foundation.

The Summit for Civil Rights will be held at the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis on November 9 and 10, 2017. The Summit will take the first steps of transforming the historic coalition for civil rights into a new, modern political alliance.

The Civil Rights Movement of Dr. King and A. Philip Randolph succeeded in transforming the nation by defeating Jim Crow and moving us all closer to the ideal of a fully inclusive society. Sadly, recent decades have seen a retreat from that ideal, as segregation has intensified and economic inequality has risen dramatically.

The Summit for Civil Rights strives to reignite forward progress. Cities, workforces, and faith organizations contain untapped and overlooked sources of political power – power that can propel, once again, a national political movement for a racially integrated and united country with sustained prosperity for all.

At the Summit, attendees will learn from the triumphs and failures of the past, examine the changed political and social landscape of today, and restore the multiracial coalition for integration – a coalition that can win.

The Summit features contributors from all walks of life. This includes bipartisan political and labor leaders, representatives from diverse working-class communities, and the historic civil rights organizations and faith leaders that have always acted as visionaries for racial justice.

The Summit is the first step in a continuing project to create strategies to advance civil rights in the realms of litigation, legislation, and political organizing.


Please mark your calendar and plan to attend and participate in this important conversation about the future of the United States.
If you have any questions, please email Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice.



Accommodations

Hotel Blocks

Courtyard Minneapolis Downtown
1500 Washington Avenue South Minneapolis MN 55454
Special Summit rate of $129 per night
Valid fort he nights of November 8th, 9th & 10th, 2017. Book by November 18, 2017 to get the Summit rate.
The Courtyard Minneapolis Downtown located is just a block away from the Law School in the vibrant West Bank/Cedar-Riverside neighborhood.
Online: Reserve Online Here
Phone: To reserve via phone, please call 877-699-3216, and mention the group name ‘Summit for Civil Rights’.

Loews Minneapolis Hotel
601 N 1st Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Special Summit rates starting at $159.00 per night. Summit attendees will be able to make reservations online or by phone and receive this special rate for the following nights: November 8th, 9th & 10th, 2017. Guests are encouraged to book early if possible to obtain these discounted rates.

Online:
You may also reserve online at www.loewshotels.com/minneapolis-hotel. Follow these steps to secure the special Summit rate:

  • Go to > Make A Reservation
  • Select “Loews Minneapolis” Hotel
  • Enter arrival and departure date (note: must be for the nights of November 8th, 9th, or 10th, 2017 or preferred rates will not display)
  • Drop down > Group Rates
  • Enter Group Code JLI118
Phone: You may call the Loews Reservations Center at 1-877-878-5670. To get the Summit block rate, please identify yourself as part of the Journal of Law & Inequality group, or reference RES ID: JLI 118 when making your reservation.

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Featured Speakers

Former Vice President Walter Mondale
Congressman Keith Ellison
Algernon Austin | Economist at Dēmos focusing on the racial wealth divide
John C. Brittain | Professor of Law UDC David A. Clarke School of Law
Linda Darling-Hammond | President of the Learning Policy Institute at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education
Gregory Floyd | President, Local 237 Teamsters
Bruce D. Haynes | University of California, Davis, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow, Urban Ethnography Project, Yale University
Paul Jargowsky | Director, Center for Urban Research and Urban Education at Rutgers University
Derrick Johnson | Interim President and CEO, NAACP
William P. Jones | Professor, University of Minnesota
Betsy Julian | Founder & Senior Counsel, Inclusive Communities Project
Catherine E. Lhamon | Chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights
Marie Lopez Rogers | Former mayor of Avondale, Arizona, and a former president of the National League of Cities
Myron Orfield | Earl R. Larson Professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Law Director, Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity University of Minnesota Law School
Alexander Polikoff | Co-Director, Public Housing; Senior Staff Counsel, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest
Becky Pringle | Vice President of the National Education Association
Fred Redmond | International Vice President of the United Steel Workers Union
Lisa Rice | Executive Vice President of the National Fair Housing Alliance
David Rusk | Founding President, Building One America
Theodore M. Shaw | Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law at Chapel Hill
William E. Spriggs | Chief Economist, AFL-CIO
Randi Weingarten | President, American Federation of Teachers

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Agenda
Summit for Civil Rights

Racial Unity and Integration as a Path to Prosperity
Presented by Law & Inequality

NOVEMBER 9 - 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
FIRST PANEL – The Scourge of Segregation
Panelists will discuss the broad impacts and terrible costs of segregation in modern American life, warping politics, eroding cities, destroying schools, fracturing the workforce, and undermining efforts to provide economic and social justice for workers, families, and communities.
SECOND PANEL – History of Segregation
Panelists will discuss the historical roots of American segregation, including the way in which public policy and political decisionmaking have led to so-called de facto segregation in American cities and schools today.

NOVEMBER 9 - Mondale Reception 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
At a special event, participants will have the opportunity to join us in celebrating the civil rights contributions of Vice President Walter Mondale, chief author of the Fair Housing Act. A brief program will revisit the origins of the Act and its contributions to the country.

NOVEMBER 10 - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
THIRD PANEL – Race and the Suburbs
Panelists will discuss the new geography of diversity in America, including the growth of diversity and segregation in the suburbs, and how this realignment changes the plausible political coalitions in support of integration and the economic prosperity it can provide.
FOURTH PANEL – The Coalition for Civil Rights
Labor, civil rights, and faith leaders will discuss how their own organizing efforts are impacted by the problem of segregation, and identify key areas in which their own organizations’ agendas intersect with the goals of a broader civil rights coalition.
CALL TO ACTION – Forming the Committees
The Summit’s work will conclude with the formation of three committees to develop long-term strategy to pursue integration, economic opportunity, and other fundamental civil rights objectives. The leadership of each committee is introduced and will speak about the work ahead.

  • Committee for Litigation Strategy
    A committee of leading civil rights, government and academic lawyers and scholars to collectively discuss and pursue critical litigation that supports a racially integrated America.
  • Committee for Legislative Strategy
    A committee of leading social scientists, planners, and local government scholars, to shape draft legislation and other proposed reforms that promote integration and strengthen the civil rights coalition.
  • Committee for Organizing Strategy
    A committee to explore ways to join the disparate strands of organizing power in America into a mutually beneficial coalition capable of grassroots organizing action, uniting progressive elements of the labor movement, civil rights organizations, and faith-based leadership.

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