Dear LSA Colleagues,
As the end of this academic year comes into view, celebrations are within reach for many in our membership and community, including graduations, new professorships, promotions, and opportunities to lead. For each of you on the threshold of new possibilities and opportunities, I celebrate and congratulate you. Your achievements are an inspiration. As this academic year begins its winding down, I am also reminded of anniversaries—milestones on matters near and dear to our research, scholarship, advocacy, and simply who we are. Anniversaries inform us how far we have come and as well they serve as reminders of the paths yet to be walked.
I am reminded of anniversaries related to our struggles for a more just society. Dating back to December, as a global community, we marked the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on Genocide. These were international law milestone for our global community, instantiating a shared vision for the safety and humanity of all peoples regardless of race, sex, creed, religion, or national origin. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, striking down so-called “separate but equal” laws. These were enormous milestones.
The wisdom of human rights applying to all people domestic and abroad, and equal access to education, seems more than apparent and our members that work and toil in these areas, your scholarship makes this clear. Yet, the power of law to intervene, help, and heal may seem more illusory than real at times.
Your scholarship demonstrates that civil rights, civil liberties, and humanitarian rights do not emerge from thin air. They are a reflection of the struggles faced. Thus, I am also reminded of Jim Crow and how three young volunteers dared to make a difference in a society steeped in Jim Crow, by addressing voter suppression. In the summer of 1964, Andrew Goodwin, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner traveled to Mississippi as part of Freedom Summer. It was not long after their arrival that these young people were stopped, abducted, tortured, and murdered. Their deaths—memorialized now in film and literature–shone a spotlight on the dangers that persistently lurked for African Americans and the barriers to their full civic participation and inclusion in society. A month after their deaths, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As we prepare for our 60th anniversary meeting, I am mindful about the context in which LSA was founded and the spirited leadership of its early founders who confronted the Vietnam War, civil rights, voting rights, and more by opening its doors and launching deliberation and debate.
The power of possibility awaits us all.
My best,
Michele Goodwin