19th News reports
A rising cohort of new leaders want to help their institutions better understand the country’s history and how it inextricably shapes the law today.
But she is less alone now. Last year, the number of Black women leading American law schools reached a high of 28. Two are interim deans. Twenty-one of them were appointed dean for the first time within the last four years. A number of them are also the first Black woman to hold their position.
These Black women deans are guiding their faculty and students through a time of contentious debates about academic teachings about systemic racism and inequities. For many of them, part of that leadership means helping their institutions better understand the country’s history and how it inextricably shapes the law today. The 19th spoke with 11 of those women about their rise to these roles, how they navigate today’s political divisions and the strong bonds they share with one another.
For Kimberly Mutcherson, holding a dean position is an opportunity to help instill ways of teaching the law that she did not see while studying at Columbia Law School in the 1990s. Law schools tend to teach the law uncritically, she said, which can seem removed from reality for students from communities that have been marginalized by it. It is also difficult to push back against an institution or professors who do not see themselves as part of the problem, she said.
“This is an experience that lots of new law students of color still have,” said Mutcherson, who is currently co-dean at Rutgers Law School in Camden. “You’re sitting in a classroom, you’re talking about a case, and it’s totally obvious to you, as a woman, as a person of color, that there’s something going on underneath what we’re talking about in class. And yet, you don’t get that opportunity to say, ‘I don’t think they would have brought this case against a White woman,’ you know?”
Mutcherson became the first woman, first LGBTQ+ and first Black law dean at Rutgers in 2019, when the number of other Black women deans noticeably began to grow. A database maintained by Mississippi College School of Law breaks down the race or ethnicity of 207 law school deans. Currently, 89 of those are White men, 54 of them are White women, 13 are Black men, 28 are Black women, seven are Hispanic or Latino men, five are Hispanic or Latina women, four are Asian or Pacific Islander men, and three are Asian or Pacific Islander women. Gender-diverse people are not listed in the database, and other groups make up less than 1 percent of law school deans.
As more Black women obtain these positions, many have been able to push for broader change in their respective schools, offer one another support navigating a predominantly White male industry, and collaborate when the need arises on shared interests, such as advocating for stronger anti-racism resources in their schools.
Read More. https://19thnews.org/2022/02/black-women-law-school-deans/
