Derrick Bell to Deliver Inaugural National Constitution Day Lecture Sept. 16 at Pitt

PITTSBURGH-Derrick Bell, distinguished lecturer and scholar at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law for 2005-06, will deliver a speech titled "The Issue of Constitutional Relevance" in honor of Pitt's inaugural Constitution Day, at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 16 in the School of Law Courtroom, Barco Law Building, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. The lecture and reception that follows are free and open to the public.

Constitution Day is a new federally designated day established to commemorate the Sept. 17, 1787, signing of the U.S. Constitution. All public educational institutions receiving federal funding are required to sponsor events that further our understanding of the Constitution. This effort, implemented by the U.S. Department of Education, is the result of a bill proposed by West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd.

Bell received his law degree from Pitt's School of Law in 1957, after having earned his undergraduate degree at Duquesne University in 1952. Former litigator with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund from 1960 to 1965, Bell is said to have worked in every aspect of civil rights. Appointed to the Harvard University Law School faculty in 1969, Bell left Harvard in 1981 to serve as dean at the University of Oregon School of Law. He returned to Harvard in 1986, but left again in 1992 to pursue his current position as a visiting (full time) professor of law at the New York University School of Law.

An accomplished writer, Bell is the author of several books, including And We Are Not Saved: The Exclusive Quest for Racial Justice (Harper San Francisco, 1987), Constitutional Conflicts (Anderson Publishing Company, 1997), and Race, Racism and American Law (Aspen Publishers: 5th edition, 2004).

For more information, call 412-648-1373.

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9/7/05/tmw