Civil rights lawyer and Harvard professor Dr. Charles Ogletree will keynote this Sunday’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration dinner. Ogletree has authored several books on the history and legacy of the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 (ITALICS) Brown v. Board of Education (ITALICS) decision.

This year’s events are titled, ‘All Deliberate Speed: The Dream Deferred?’ Eric Holzwarth, co-chair of the organizing committee and deputy director of the Renee Crown Honors Program, explained that this year’s events are meant to raise questions about the state of racial equality in America.

‘We still live in a society that is supposedly free and open, but there’s still segregation,’ Holzwarth said.

Ogletree’s book, ‘All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education,’ documents how the implementation of the (ITALICS) Brown (ITALICS) decision has prevented the full desegregation of American society.

The book also earned Ogletree criticism in 2004, when it was discovered that six paragraphs were lifted from Jack Balkin’s book, ‘What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said.’ Ogletree apologized, and a review board found the incident was an accident from one of his research assistants.

Ogletree is also a leading proponent of reparations. He has filed suit, seeking damages on behalf of victims from the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots. In March, Ogletree submitted the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Daily Orange: What are you planning for your keynote speech at the event?

Dr. Charles Ogletree: To focus on King’s extraordinary life as a radical theologian, and someone who took his ministry beyond the pulpit. King was willing to confront all forms of social injustice, even at the expense of losing his life.

D.O.: You discuss in your book how the results of the (ITALICS) Brown (ITALICS) decision were diluted by political and other interests. Have we yet to really see the results of the (ITALICS) Brown (ITALICS) decision?

Ogletree: Fifty years after (ITALICS) Brown (ITALICS), we still are faced with massive segregation among the races in public educational institutions. Fifty years after (ITALICS) Brown (ITALICS), we still see resistance to white children and black children receiving educational equity, in terms of resources and opportunities. We have made some progress, but we still are proceeding with ‘all deliberate speed.’

D.O.: In what ways is Dr. King’s dream not realized in America? Where has there been real progress over the last four decades?

Ogletree: On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. King came to Washington, D.C. for the historic March on Washington, and complained about the lack of meaningful racial progress in America. The problems that he complained about in 1963, equal access to the right to vote, jobs and the end of racial discrimination, are still challenges in the 21st century. Dr. King would be pleased that we have made some symbolic progress since 1963, but deeply disappointed at the failure of substantial substantive progress in 2006.

D.O.: In terms of racial progress and the end of discrimination in America: Do you have hope with the current generation in universities like Harvard and Syracuse?

Ogletree: Students today give me great optimism in thinking about the future of race relations. Public and private institutions of higher learning offered very little diversity 50 years ago. Today, the numbers have improved dramatically, and the current generation of students is finding ways to promote diversity as an essential component of their educational and life experiences.

D.O.: What is the most serious race issue we currently face in our country?

Ogletree: There are many serious race issues: the lack of access to vote given to a substantial number of African-Americans who have served their time, and yet are disenfranchised; the disparity in health care that has a staggering correlation in terms of race and continues to allow the underserved communities of color to be deprived of minimal health care and the pervasive impact of racial profiling in our criminal justice system and in the area of economic opportunities.

D.O.: Do you believe in your lifetime that the reparations movement will succeed?

Ogletree: Five years ago, the word ‘reparations’ was barely mentioned. It has now become a household term. The slavery era ordinances, originally passed by the Chicago City Council at the urgings of Alderman Dorothy Tillman, have subsequently been passed in nearly a dozen cities. The state of Virginia provided reparations in terms of educational resources to African-American students who were denied educational opportunities in the ’50s, when Virginia closed its public schools. This is the century, and indeed the decade, where serious embracing of the reparations debate is inevitable.

Published on January 18, 2006 at 12:00 pm