Founding Co-Director of Harvard's Civil Rights Project to Speak at UAlbany's Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon
Contact:Heidi Weber (518) 437-4993
ALBANY, N.Y. (February 11, 2003) -- Christopher Edley, Jr., a Harvard Law School professor and founding co-director of The Civil Rights Project, a multidisciplinary research and advocacy thinktank based at Harvard that focuses on cutting-edge racial justice issues, will be the keynote speaker at UAlbany's 24th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon. The event will be held on Monday, Feb. 24 at noon in the Campus Center Ballroom on the University's Uptown Campus. The luncheon, part of UAlbany's Black History Month celebrations, is free and open to the public.
Professor Edley began his career in the Carter Administration as assistant director of the White House Domestic Staff. He joined the faculty of Harvard Law School in 1981 and later served in the Dukakis presidential campaign as national issues director. In 1992, he served as a senior advisor on economic policy for the Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition. He then served in the Clinton Administration as a senior budget and policy official.
His book, Not All Black & White: Affirmative Action, Race and American Values, grew from his work as special counsel to President Clinton and director of the White House Review of Affirmative Action. Professor Edley was credited as architect of the President's "Mend it, don't end it" defense of affirmative action. He is currently completing a book assessing the Clinton Administration's record on racial justice and analyzing the future prospects for the racial justice movement in a multiracial society.
Professor Edley is serving a six-year term as a member of the bipartisan United States Civil Rights Commission. He is a member of the Task Force on the Future of the Common School, an effort focused on racial and economic segregation of public schools. He also serves on the executive committee of the board of People for the American Way.
For more information about Professor Edley or The Civil Rights Project, visit www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu. For more information about UAlbany's Black History Month activities, visit www.albany.edu.
Established in 1844 and designated a center of the State University of New York in 1962, the University at Albany's broad mission of excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, research and public service engages 17,000 diverse students in eight degree-granting schools and colleges.
For more information about this nationally ranked University, visit https://www.albany.edu.
