Derrick Bell, Law Professor and Racial Advocate, Dies at 80

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Derrick Bell, a legal scholar who worked to expose the persistence of racism in America through his books and articles and his provocative career moves — he gave up a Harvard Law School professorship to protest the school’s hiring practices — died on Wednesday in New York. He was 80.

Mr. Bell, a resident of the Upper West Side, died of carcinoid cancer at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital at 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, said his wife, Janet Dewart.

Mr. Bell was the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School and later the first black dean of a law school that is not historically black. But he was perhaps better known for resigning from prestigious jobs than for accepting them.

In his 20s, while working at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, he was told to give up his membership in the N.A.A.C.P., which his superiors believed posed a conflict of interest. Instead, he quit the Justice Department, ignoring the advice of friends to try to change things from within.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/derrick-bell-pioneering-harvard-law-professor-dies-at-80.html?pagewanted=all

[provis99]

1. A great man died,

and all DU can talk about is that jackass Steve Jobs.

Fred Shuttleworth apparently died to, but you'd never know it at DU.

[TBF]

2. Most people wouldn't recognize his name

but it looks as though he was a wonderful person. RIP, Mr. Bell.

[Igel]

3. He was a nice guy.

Don't have much respect for his style of "scholarship," but he was on good terms with his neighbors and his son's friends and their families.

I was acquainted with him when he was in Oregon, and his son/family were friends with a family I was close friends with.

[_ed_]

4. It's too bad he didn't sell cheap electronics

We could publicly celebrate him as a genius and visionary. Another great civil rights leader died, also. Total media blackout as the cult of Apple buries their Dear Leader. Bizarre country, this is.