#mlaw

The Jane C.M. Lucas ‘44 Committee for Jurisprudence and Activism is a body at the University of Michigan Law School focused on celebrating the unique contribution of the African-American community to American imaginings of jurisprudence. 

Started in 2016, by a broad coalition of student groups, the Committee is formed of students, faculty, and alumni that come together to organizing two major events each academic year: 

1. Jane C. M. Lucas, '44 Lecture

Every year, we invite and honor an African-American woman luminary from the judiciary to deliver a lecture on the importance of diversity.

2. The Jane C.M. Lucas ‘44 Social Action Workshop

Jane Cleo Marshall Lucas, the first female African-American graduate of the Law School, was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1920.  She received a scholarship to Howard University and was part of the class entering in 1937.  She graduated from Howard University in 1941.  She received her M.A. in political science from the University of Michigan Rackham School of Graduates Studies in 1942 and in the fall of 1942 began at the University of Michigan Law School.

She graduated from the Law School in 1944 and passed the Michigan bar examination.  After graduation, her first job was in the law office of Arthur Davis Shores, the only black lawyer in Alabama.  Because of the hurdles placed in her way, she was not able to sit for the Alabama bar examination before she married and moved to Fairmont Height, Maryland.

In 1946, she became the first African-American woman to pass the Maryland bar and was invited to join the Howard University law faculty becoming the first woman to teach full-time on the law faculty.  She resigned from the faculty in 1950 and moved with her husband to Staten Island, New York.

No one can do civil disobedience better than White people because- let’s be honest here- we all know they can get away with it. Hash Bash, is taking place right outside the law school. I’m sitting in my law school library, and the entire library smells strongly of weed. Even the description of the event makes it sound justified: A collection of speeches, live music, street vending, and occasional civil disobedience centered on the goal of reforming federal, state, and local marijuana laws.

Two grown men had the enthusiasm of teenagers today as they discussed attending the Monroe Street Fair (it’s official title). One of our law professors said that he was excited to take his mother to the fair this weekend. On my way to the library this morning, I saw an entire family headed in the direction of the fair. And yes, they were all White.

Black people are arrested all the time for this non-violent offense in disproportionate numbers. States like Colorado have capitalized on recreational marijuana use while continually denying Black people loans to start their own marijuana-related businesses or pardoning the People of Color who are currently incarcerated for this now legal activity. Since citizens in states with recreational marijuana use can still be prosecuted under federal law, researchers have shown that police officers still disproportionately target People of Color for enforcement of the federal laws over state laws.

Poor, Black people have participated in the business of marijuana for decades (which has always been consistent with the percentage of White marijuana users in America) as a way of surviving and now that society is realizing the vast medical benefits and lack of moral objections to the plant, they are now absolving themselves of the repercussions that they have subjected Black people to for so long.

I’m upset at how Black people have been targeted through this failed “War on Drugs”, yet I support the ultimate legalization of marijuana for recreational use, medical use, and tax revenue. So where does that leave me? How can I support a policy that still leaves Black people out?