“From Campaigning to Governing: New Challenges Facing `President Barack Obama” is the subject of this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Lecture at Washington University School of Medicine.
The guest speaker is President Barack and first lady Michelle Obama’s former law school teacher and the president’s special counsel, Charles Ogletree, J.D.
Ogletree is one of the nation’s most prominent legal theorists, and is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard University and the founder and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Institute for Race and Justice.
“His commitment outside of legal circles is equally laudable, most notably his role as a founding member of a charter school in Cambridge that provides science, technology, and math opportunities to minority children in public schools,” said Dr. Will Ross, associate dean of diversity and associate professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine, who leads the annual MLK lecture series.
Ross said leading intellectuals who are brought in as MLK lecturers challenge the institution and the region to think strategically as it works to improve cultural diversity and reduce health inequities.
“Professor Ogletree was eager to course through the raw, exceedingly destructive vitriol around government oversight of social programs.” Ross said.
Despite inheriting two wars, a declining economy and republican opposition at every turn, Ogletree is optimistic about Obama.
“What some viewed as a doomed Presidency just months ago, are now realizing his extraordinary ability to actually get things done, and pursue an ambitious agenda of events that are applauded by most Americans.” Ogletree told The American. “That is the Barack Obama that I have known for well over 20 years, and I expect even greater things going forward.”
Ogletree has earned an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex law issues and working to secure for everyone equally, rights guaranteed by the Constitution. He served as legal counsel to Professor Anita Hill during Justice Clarence Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearings.
Ogletree contributes to many journals and law reviews and has written two books, one on his reflections on the Anita Hill experience and another on race and the death penalty in America.
Ogletree has moderated national television forums and appeared on television and radio for his work.
Numerous awards and honors to Ogletree include the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for National Service; the Carter G. Woodson History Maker Living Legend Award; and the National Bar Association’s A. Leon Higginbotham Lawyer of the Year Award (Young Lawyer’s Division) and its Equal Justice Award.
Ogletree earned his law degree from Harvard Law School where he served as special projects editor of the” Harvard Civil Rights – Civil Liberty Law Review;” an MA and a BA (with distinction) in political science from Stanford University, where he was Phi Beta Kappa.
Ogletree lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Pamela Barnes and their two children.
The MLK lecture, “From Campaigning to Governing: New Challenges Facing `President Barack Obama” takes place Monday, January 17 at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of the Eric P. Newman Education Center, located at 320 South Euclid Avenue.
Free parking is available on surface lots and validated parking is available in the North Garage, located across the street from the Center for Advanced Medicine Building at Euclid and Forest Parkway, or the Metro Garage.
A reception will follow the lecture.
To RSVP for the event, call Michelle Patterson at 314-362-6854 or email mpatterson@wustl.edu.
