Renowned civil rights scholar delivers Dreyfous Lecture Feb. 2, kicks off BLA Reunion

Prof. Darren Hutchinson, the John Lewis Chair for Civil Rights and Social Justice at Emory University, will be this year’s Tulane Law School's Dreyfous Lecturer.

The George Abel and Mathilde Schwab Dreyfous Lecture, dedicated to the study of civil liberties and human rights, will take place Thursday, Feb. 2 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the law school’s John Giffen Weinmann Hall, with a reception immediately following.

Hutchinson’s lecture is titled, “Anti-Anti-racism, Resistance, Backlash and Resiliency.” He is an acclaimed legal scholar and social justice advocate whose work focuses on analyzing and remedying inequality.  His lecture kicks off Tulane Law School's Black Law Alumni Reunion, which will run through Feb. 5 and features a myriad of events, including CLE panels, a BLSA soiree and speakers, including renowned civil rights activist and former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Sherrilyn Ifill, who will deliver the keynote address.

More on the Black Law Alumni Reunion Events can be found here.

Hutchinson has explored the intersection of law, social justice, and civil rights and developed solutions to systemic failures that have impacted marginalized communities. His research crosses many academic disciplines and looks at the impact of law on a wide range of civil rights and social justice issues. His scholarship emphasizes the importance of viewing inequality as a multidimensional concept.

Before joining Emory, Hutchinson was the Raymond & Miriam Ehrlich Eminent Scholar at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Before joining the Levin College of Law, Hutchinson held tenured faculty positions at American University Washington College of Law and Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. He also was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Hutchinson received a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Following law school, he was a litigation associate at the New York City office of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton.  He also served as law clerk to the late Honorable Mary Johnson Lowe, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The George Abel and Mathilde Schwab Dreyfous Lecture on Civil Liberties and Human Rights was established in 1965 to honor George Abel Dreyfous, the founder of the Louisiana Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and a Southern pioneer and leader in the field of civil liberties. In 2003, the title of the lecture series was changed to honor both Mr. Dreyfous and his wife, Mathilde Schwab Dreyfous, a tireless community volunteer and activist who worked closely with her husband towards an end to segregation and discrimination against African-Americans.