Initiative to Train a New Generation of Antiracist Lawyers
Antiracist Scholars for Progress, Innovation & Racial Equity (ASPIRE) was developed in collaboration with the BU Center for Antiracist Research.
Initiative to Train a New Generation of Antiracist Lawyers
Antiracist Scholars for Progress, Innovation & Racial Equity (ASPIRE) was developed in collaboration with the BU Center for Antiracist Research.
Over the summer, Gabriela Rosario (’23), Alexandra Stanley (’22), and a handful of other BU Law students had the opportunity to advocate for the right of people who have been falsely accused of crimes to pursue civil rights claims against the police or other government officials.
The team of students conducted research for an amicus brief—coauthored by Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Professor Jasmine Gonzales Rose, and others—that was submitted to the US Supreme Court on behalf of the School of Law and BU’s Center for Antiracist Research.
“I saw this as a unique opportunity where we could bring together research from across the University and across the center’s Affiliates Program to be able to inform the court and the public about issues that are particularly important for antiracism,” says Gonzales Rose, who is also deputy director of research & policy at the Center for Antiracist Research. “You can impact policy through changing the law, through educating the courts, and educating the public. There’s a real component here of evidence-based advocacy.”
The amicus brief project is just one way BU Law is collaborating with the center to prepare the next generation of antiracist lawyers. The School of Law is pleased to introduce Antiracist Scholars for Progress, Innovation & Racial Equity (ASPIRE), which will provide a full-tuition scholarship for all three years of law school as well as trainings, annual retreats, and work experiences that will give students tools to challenge policies and practices that maintain racial inequities.
Law influences every major racial problem and inequity in our society. For our society to move forward and remedy these issues, the next generation of lawyers not only need to understand how law has, in some instances, helped create and facilitate those very problems and inequities, but also need to develop tools and strategies for using the law to correct for them.
ASPIRE was developed under the leadership of Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean of BU Law and the inaugural Ryan Roth Gallo & Ernest J. Gallo Professor—the nation’s first endowed professorship in critical race theory—in partnership with Ibram X. Kendi, founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. The initiative will launch with a cohort of students from the Class of 2025, who will begin law school next fall.
The legal profession needs attorneys who are committed to antiracist work now more than ever. “Law influences every major racial problem and inequity in our society. For our society to move forward and remedy these issues, the next generation of lawyers not only need to understand how law has, in some instances, helped create and facilitate those very problems and inequities, but also need to develop tools and strategies for using the law to correct for them,” says Dean Onwuachi-Willig.
“Part of that work involves understanding and considering the experiences of the full diversity of individuals whom they will encounter as clients, colleagues, and community members. Part of that work is understanding how past and current traumas can shape and influence attorney-client relationships, workplace or team relationships, and even overall trust in the legal system, and part of that work is understanding that one can engage in antiracist lawyering in all fields and practices, whether they are in a corporate law firm or a public interest organization.”
Students interested in applying for ASPIRE need not have previous training in antiracism but will have a demonstrated commitment to social justice and racial equity. Recipients will embody a variety of experiences, cultures, and backgrounds, and the hope is that the program can also help to add to the diversity of the legal profession overall. The ASPIRE scholars may also desire to work in the public interest, governmental, or private sectors.
In addition to the tuition benefit, students admitted to the ASPIRE program will partner with a faculty mentor, attend antiracist workshops, and work in a paid, one-semester internship with the Center for Antiracist Research. Under the direction of Professor Gonzales Rose, interns will contribute to projects—like amicus briefs submitted to the Supreme Court—designed to create policy innovation and meaningful legal change.
“Lawyers play a critical role in society,” says Dean Onwuachi-Willig. “They shape policy. They govern our nation, states, cities, towns, tribes. They help create social and legal reform. In all of these actions, one can either support and perpetuate racist policies or ideas or support and perpetuate antiracist policies and ideas. As a law school that not only wants to improve our profession, but also our nation and the world, we want to train our students to use their talents to fight against and eradicate racism rather than sustain it.”
