Derrick Bell, first tenured black professor at Harvard Law, dies

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Associated Press

New York — Derrick Bell, a civil rights scholar and writer who was the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School, has died. He was 80.

Bell died Wednesday night of carcinoid cancer at a Manhattan hospital, his wife, Janet Dewart Bell, said Friday. He'd been diagnosed with the disease a decade ago, she said, but was still teaching at New York University Law School as recently as last week.

The dean at NYU, Richard Revesz, said, "For more than 20 years, the law school community has been profoundly shaped by Derrick's unwavering passion for civil rights and community justice, and his leadership as a scholar, teacher, and activist."

Bell was long dissatisfied with the progress of race relations in America despite his own success. He helped establish a field known as critical race theory by urging that U.S. laws be examined for racism embedded within them. . .

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20111007/OBITUARIES/110070454/1361/Derrick-Bell--first-tenured-black-professor-at-Harvard-Law--dies

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Quite a giant, and a trailblazer to be sure.

[monmouth]

1. Seems like we are losing so many of these greats, their generation

did so much. RIP sir, you gave so much.