A Harvard Law School professor and Brown v. Board of Education scholar will headline a Feb. 21-22 forum at West Virginia University on racial issues in the Mountain State.

Charles G. Ogletree will give the Edward G. Donley Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 21, in the WVU College of Laws Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom. His talk will be part of a West Virginia Law Review symposium exploring the states unique past on minority issues, its current status of equality and recommendations for further action.

Both the lecture and symposium are open to the public and offer 11.4 hours of continuing education credit for attending attorneys.

We are extremely pleased Professor Ogletree will be giving this years Donley lecture as part of the Law Reviews symposium on Brown v. Board of Education,said Dean John Fisher.He is one of the leading national figures in legal education, and its a real honor he will be coming to our school to share his insights on this landmark case.

Ogletree, who was not even 2 years old when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its May 17, 1954, decision outlawing segregation in public schools, grew up in a family of California farm workers and has gone on to be a prominent legal theorist.

He is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. His books on the Brown decision includeBrown at 50: The Unfinished Legacy,which he co-authored with Deborah Rhode, andAll Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education.

The Edward G. Donley Memorial Lecture brings to WVU distinguished members of the legal profession to lecture in a field of current interest and development in law. Edward Donley was a prominent Morgantown lawyer and a graduate of the WVU College of Laws Class of 1899. The lecture series in his name was made possible by a trust established by his widow and son, both of whom are deceased.

The symposiumA Look at Brown v. Board of Education in West Virginia: Remembering the Past, Examining the Present and Preparing for the Futurewill also take place in the Lugar Courtroom. The event kicks off the spring semester activities surrounding WVU s ongoing 50 th anniversary celebration of the Brown decision.

National and state speakers will participate in a series of lectures and panels exploring racial disparities in the areas of education, healthcare, criminal/juvenile system, and employment/economic development.

Speakers will include Dr. Garth Graham, deputy assistant secretary for minority health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Carl Cooper, the nations first chief diversity officer for a major law firm; Devon Carbado, a UCLA law professor whose areas of expertise include constitutional law and employment discrimination; and West Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph P. Albright.

Like every state, West Virginia still struggles with racial equality, despite the Supreme Courts mandate half a century ago that equality be precededwith all deliberate speed,said Marcie McClintic, a WVU law student and editor in chief of the Law Review.

The 50-year anniversary of the Brown decision marks an important occasion for the states only law school to host a scholarly forum on issues of racial equality in the state,McClintic added.

Housed in the WVU College of Law, the West Virginia Law Review is a professional, student-governed legal journal that publishes articles of interest to legal scholars, students, legislators and members of the practicing Bar.

In conjunction with the symposium, the WVU Presidents Office for Social Justice is sponsoring a Fireside Chat at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21 in the Mountainlair Vandalia Lounge. Participants will share first-hand accounts of events in West Virginia before and after the Brown decision.

For more information, visit the West Virginia Law Review Web site at http://www.wvu.edu/~law/lr/wvalrev.htm or call the Law Review at 304-293-2301.

Other Brown events this semester:

• Feb. 24, 2005 Segregation and Integration of High School Sports in West Virginiapresentation and poster session, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., keynote speech by David Wiggins and panel discussion, 7-9 p.m., Mountainlair Ballrooms

• March 10, 2005 Black Hands in the Biscuits Not in the Classrooms: Unveiling Hope in a Struggle for Browns Promise,Sherick Hughes, 6 p.m., Erickson Alumni Center

• March 11, 2005 Personal testimonials of individuals who experienced school segregation and integration, 11 a.m., Erickson Alumni Center

More on the Net: http://www.wvu.edu/~socjust/brown_v_board_aug20.htm