Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia School of Law’s American Constitution Society is partnering with other departments on campus to host Tomiko Brown-Nagin, author of the book Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement, on April 20 at 4 p.m. in the Chapel. The event is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by UGA’s Institute for African American Studies, Department of History, African American Cultural Center, and Graduate and Professional Scholars.
Brown-Nagin’s talk will cover a variety of topics addressed in her book and will emphasize the role of lawyers, courts and community-based activism during the civil rights era from both a historical and legal perspective. In recounting Atlanta’s desegregation experience from the early 1940s to the 1980s, Brown-Nagin will shed light on a time where issues such as voting rights, housing, education and transportation were faced locally.
“Dr. Tomiko’s groundbreaking book tells gripping stories about the long struggle for equality, and I am confident that her presentation will be just as powerful,” event organizer and third-year law student Ashland J. Johnson said. “In this sweeping history of the civil rights movement in Atlanta, the South’s largest and most economically important city, Tomiko shows that the movement featured a vast array of activists and many sophisticated approaches to change.”
The lecture will be followed by a book signing session, with copies of the book available for purchase.
As a law professor, history professor and civil rights scholar at the University of Virginia, Brown-Nagin’s work encompasses a broad spectrum of disciplines including law, history, women’s studies, African-American studies, education and social work.
Prior to entering academe, Brown-Nagin clerked for Judge Robert L. Carter of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and for Judge Jane Roth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. She also worked as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York City.
She earned her undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Furman University, her doctorate in history from Duke University and her law degree from Yale University, where she was an editor ofThe Yale Law Journal.
