NYCLA AND MBBA HOST BLACK HISTORY MONTH RECEPTION; GLORIA BROWNE- MARSHALL TO RECEIVE IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT JUSTICE AWARD ON FEBRUARY 11

14 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Anita Aboulafia 212-267-6646, ext. 225, aaboulafia@nycla.org

FEBRUARY 1, 2009 – NEW YORK, NY – In honor of Black History Month, the New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) and Metropolitan Black Bar Association (MBBA) will present the seventh annual Ida B. Wells-Barnett Justice Award to Gloria J. Browne-Marshall on Wednesday, February 11 at the NYCLA Home of Law, 14 Vesey Street beginning at 6:00 PM.

Professor Browne-Marshall is the author of Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to the Present and associate professor of Constitutional Law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The award is named in honor of Ida B. Wells-Barnett, an African-American civil rights advocate who adamantly fought against segregation and in support of women’s rights. Hon. Pam Jackman Brown, the Supervising Judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York, is the program chair for this event.

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall

Gloria J. Browne-Marshall’s fields of scholarship include constitutional law and racial justice/civil rights law, international human rights and child advocacy. Before joining the faculty at John Jay College, Professor Browne-Marshall worked with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and taught at Vassar College. She is the Executive Director/ Founder of The Law and Policy Group, Inc. She previously chaired the International Human Rights Committee of the American Bar Association. She is the Executive Director/Founder of The Law and Policy Group, Inc. She serves on the Board of the Women’s City Club of New York City and secretary of the board of Planned Parenthood of New York City. A member of the board of the United Nations Association of New York, Professor Browne-Marshall is also a notable playwright. She earned her law degree from St. Louis University and her master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Last year Patricia L. Gatling, Commissioner and Chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights, received the award.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)

Ida B. Wells, the daughter of slaves, was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi and went on to become a teacher, newspaper editor, journalist, orator, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader. In 1884, after she was forcibly removed from her seat for refusing to move to a “colored car” on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad, she filed suit against the railroad for violating her civil rights. Ms. Wells won her case in the local circuit court, but the railroad company appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which reversed the lower court’s ruling in 1877. She lived in Chicago and in 1895, married Ferdinand L. Barnett, a fellow crusader and well-known attorney, as well as the founder of The Conservator newspaper. In 1930, Ms. Wells-Barnett ran for the Illinois state legislature, one of the first black women ever to run for public office in the United States.

The New York County Lawyers’ Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

Founded in 1984, the Metropolitan Black Bar Association (MBBA) (www.mbbany.org) was created from the merger of the Harlem Lawyers Association, founded in 1921, and the Bedford Stuyvesant Lawyers Association, founded in 1933. As one of the largest organizations of Black attorneys in New York State, the MBBA continues the rich legacy of its two predecessor organizations by providing a voice for Black legal professionals in the communities it serves.

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