Introducing the "Champions of Diversity" in the Academic Kickoff issue proved a timely reminder of the mission of Diverse during the lead up to the 25th anniversary of Cox, Matthews and Associates, the founder of the former Black Issues in Higher Education and publisher of Diverse. In this edition, the editors at Diverse unveil its second slate of…

From her late teenage years as a civil rights activist to an interim presidency at Howard University, Dr. Joyce A. Ladner has lived as heroic and accomplished a life as any scholar of her generation. A 1964 graduate of Tougaloo College, Ladner, in her college days, with her sister, Dorie Ladner, and other students from the Student Nonviolent…

Advocates for a more inclusive legal profession are worried about the recent decline in enrollment of Black students in law school. According to the American Bar Association (ABA), Blacks were 7.4 percent of all law students in 1994. By 2005, that percentage had fallen to just 6.6. Several law journal articles have suggested that the schools…

This article describes the accomplishments of Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law at Harvard University law school. The first and only African American woman to hold a tenured faculty position at the Harvard University law school, Guinier has put her visibility to use by speaking out on issues of race, gender and democratic…

Lawmakers have made the closing of racial and ethnic academic achievement gaps an acknowledged priority of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. So far the research has largely explored common factors explaining why Black and Latino students generally lag behind Whites and Asian Americans. Lorretta Chavez, a public school teacher and a doctoral…

Few historic episodes in American history have imparted a more potent plea for social justice and inclusion than the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. In the past two decades, legendary activist Bob Moses has channeled the best of the civil rights tradition into a campaign of school reform and curriculum development with the nationally…

As a bright and ambitious youngster growing up poor in Southside Chicago, Deval L. Patrick won a scholarship to Milton Academy, a private Massachusetts boarding school, courtesy of the acclaimed "A Better Chance" initiative. Attending the prestigious and rigorous prep school altered the course of Patrick's life. He flourished at Milton…

On July 1, Christopher Edley Jr. became the dean of the University of California-Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law. The first African American to hold the deanship of California's premier public law school, Edley brings to the job an array of accomplishments and experiences few American law school deans can match. This article describes his…