Design of upcoming mural honoring Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. —Linn Washington Jr. Photo

F. Michael Higginbotham, a relative of Judge Higginbotham, speaks at the ceremony. The background shows President Lyndon Johnson, right, who supported Leon Higginbotham, left, to become the first Black federal trial court judge in Pennsylvania. —Linn Washington Jr. Photo

Shawn Theodore is the artist for the Higginbotham mural.

—Linn B. Washington Jr. Photo

By the age of 16, Wendella Fox knew she wanted to be a lawyer. What Fox didn’t know at that time was any real lawyers. Fox never met a lawyer while growing up in Baltimore.

Fox didn’t meet her first lawyer until she attended the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. That lawyer, a federal judge named A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., became Fox’s instructor — plus an inspiration and mentor during her career.

“He gave me a recommendation for law school,” Penn Law School graduate Fox said.

Fox, whose legal career includes ranking posts with the city of Philadelphia and the federal government, was among the two dozen-plus who attended a ceremony last week in West Philadelphia that announced a planned mural honoring Higginbotham. The site for this 19 x 22-foot mural is above the entrance of a medical facility in the 4500 block of Chestnut Street.

The Trenton-born Higginbotham, who died in 1998, earned legendary stature nationally, and internationally as a revered jurist, scholar, and civil rights advocate. He helped write the constitution for post-apartheid South Africa — considered the most progressive constitution in the world for its provisions on social justice and human rights.

Higginbotham was the first African-American federal trial court judge in Pennsylvania (1964) and the fifth Black federal appeals court judge in the nation (1977). He taught at seven law schools, including University of Penn, Harvard and Yale, the law school where he graduated in 1952.

As a scholar/historian, Higginbotham wrote two award-winning books plus over 60 articles for law and academic journals. Those two books meticulously documented the centrality of racism in American law. Such documentation strongly rebuts conservatives who claim racism exerts little influence on American law.

Higginbotham is relevant “for our times,” University of Penn Law School Board of Advisors Chair Osagie Imasogie said during the mural ceremony.

Despite Higginbotham’s impressive accomplishments, his legacy is often overlooked in Philadelphia, the city he called home for decades of his life.

This dearth of local recognition is what motivated local journalist/publisher Larry Platt to secure support for a Higginbotham mural from Mural Arts Philadelphia, the United States’ largest public art program.

“He is a giant in the legal community. But he’s lost in the general memory of Philadelphia,” Platt said at that ceremony. “We can’t forget his importance. He stood for expanding constitutional rights not diminishing rights like the current Supreme Court.”

Shawn Theodore, the artist selected to create the Higginbotham mural, admitted he knew nothing about the jurist/scholar.

“When I did the research, I found so many wonderful things,” Theodore, an African American, said about the mural that is scheduled for competition in October. “I’m honored as an artist to translate his life.”

A relative of Higginbotham, law professor F. Michael Higginbotham, emphasized an impressive character trait of the late jurist.

“What made Leon special was his compassion. He cared about the poor, the disposed, the voiceless and the hopeless,” Higginbotham, a University of Baltimore School of Law professor, said during the ceremony. “My hope is this mural will allow more people to learn about him and the values he embraced.”

Rising from humble working-class beginnings, Higginbotham “never forgot his roots” stated one of the scores of tributes written about Higginbotham.

One of Higginbotham’s most widely known works was his 1991 “Open Letter” to then newly installed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Higginbotham urged Thomas to continue the works of great Black lawyers who broke barriers that, for example, enabled Thomas, an African American, to attend the Yale Law School and marry a white woman — an act once outlawed in many states including Virginia where the Thomases live.

Thomas’ aggressively anti-Black stances on the Supreme Court have vindicated Higginbotham’s critique that sparked some criticism at the time.

Kamala Harris at the NAACP convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on Monday. — Screenshot

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared at the NAACP convention in Atlantic City on Monday, declaring that freedom, liberty and democracy are on the ballot in the upcoming midterm elections.

She implored the large gathering at the Atlantic City Convention Center to make sure that all voices are heard.

“We’re not going to be able to get these days back, so each one of these days we must, with a sense of urgency, ensure that the American people know their voice and their vote matters,” Harris declared.

“It is their voice. The right to vote is something that the leaders of this organization and its founders knew to be at the core of all of the other rights and freedoms to which we are entitled,” she said.

“So, we know what we need to do. And, in particular, to protect the freedom to vote and a women’s right to make decisions about her own body, we need people who will defend our rights up and down the ballot, from district attorneys to state attorneys general, from local sheriffs to governors.”

The vice president received several standing ovations as she spoke of the need to vote. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade association representing 235 African American-owned newspapers and media companies, has teamed with the Transformative Justice Coalition in an effort to register 10 million more Black voters ahead of the 2022 midterm and 2024 general elections.

When Harris arrived in Atlantic City, Mayor Marty Small greeted her as she descended from Air Force Two.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson spoke to the vice president and railed against politicians and the U.S. Supreme Court for “the erosion of constitutional freedom, including the right of a woman over her own body.”

Harris also decried the sharp increase in mass shootings and gun violence in the United States.

“There is no reason for weapons of war on the streets of America,” she said.

With West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin repeatedly blocking the Biden-Harris administration agenda, Harris called on voters to participate in the U.S. Senate election.

“We will not, and the president has been clear, we will not let the filibuster stand in our way of our most essential rights and freedoms,” Harris said.

“I visited Buffalo, New York, to attend the funeral of an 86-year-old grandmother who went to the grocery store after, as she often did, spending the day with her husband who was in a nursing home — Mrs. Whitfield.”

Harris continued:

“I went to Highland Park, Illinois, where there were strollers and lawn chairs scattered up and down a street where there was supposed to be a parade for July 4th. There — as in Uvalde, Texas; as in Greenwood, Indiana, just last night; and in so many communities across our nation — scenes of ordinary life have been turned into war zones by horrific acts of gun violence.

“Mass shootings have made America a nation in mourning. And it’s not only the mass shootings. We see it in our communities every day, and it is no less tragic or outrageous.

“Think about it: Black people are 13% of America’s population but make up 62% of gun homicide victims.

“This issue of the need for reasonable gun safety laws is a real issue when we are talking about the civil right, the right that all communities should have, to live in a place that is safe without weapons of war running those streets.”

She said the number of guns manufactured in the country tripled over the last 20 years. “Today we have more guns in our nation than people,” Harris said.

“Earlier this month, the president signed the first federal gun safety law in nearly 30 years. And it was an important and necessary step. But we need to do more. We must repeal the liability shield that protects gun manufacturers. And we must renew the assault weapons ban.”

Law professor Amy Wax teaches a class at the University of Pennsylvania. —Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania

Ted Ruger

Vivian L. Gadsden

New accusations of “inappropriate conduct” against University of Penn law professor Amy Wax were outlined recently in a 12-page letter to the school’s Faculty Senate by law school Dean Ted Ruger. He is requesting that the Senate levy a “major sanction” against Wax.

In the June 23 letter Ruger said “Wax has repeatedly used the platform she was granted when she became a professor ... to disparage immigrants, people of color, and women, including law students, alumni and faculty.”

The letter states that “although imposing sanctions on a faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania is a ‘rare event,’” Wax’s conduct deserves a “major sanction against her.” The major sanction means that Wax could be suspended or fired.

Ruger, who is also the University of Pennsylvania’s Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law, wrote to the university’s Faculty Senate chairperson Vivian L. Gadsden, who is also the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education.

“I am initiating this disciplinary action because for several years and in multiple instances Wax has shown a callous and flagrant disregard for our University community — including students, faculty, and staff — who have been repeatedly subjected to Wax’s intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic actions and statements,” Ruger wrote. “Wax’s conduct inflicts harm on them and the institution and undermines the University’s core values. Wax has made these statements in the classroom and on campus, in other academic settings, and in public forums in which she was identified as a University of Pennsylvania professor. Her statements are antithetical to the University’s mission to foster a diverse and inclusive community and have led students and faculty to reasonably believe they will be subjected to discriminatory animus if they come into contact with her. That eminently reasonable concern has led students to conclude that they cannot take Wax’s classes and faculty to call her presence demoralizing and disruptive.

“Wax has disseminated false information about segments of the University community. She has exploited access to students’ confidential grade information and mischaracterized Law School policies in ostensible support of derogatory and inaccurate statements made about the characteristics, attitudes, and abilities of her students.”

Ruger said that the derogatory statements could cause Wax’s students to feel unfairly judged against their white peers.

“Her conduct is antithetical to the University’s core mission to attract a diverse student body to an inclusive educational environment,” the letter stated.

In a statement to The Philadelphia Tribune, Penn Law spokesperson Meredith Rovine said that Wax will now be evaluated by “a group of her peers” among the University’s tenured faculty.

“In January 2022, Dean Ruger announced that he would move forward with a University Faculty Senate process to address Professor Wax’s escalating conduct,” Rovine said.

“That process called for, and continues to involve, careful investigation and deliberation in order to protect the students, faculty, and staff who comprise this institution, and to provide fairness and due process to all involved including Professor Wax,” she said.

“Such a process takes time, and thought, and involves multiple decisionmakers. Under the University of Pennsylvania’s rules, with the charges filed the propriety of Professor Wax’s conduct will now be assessed by a group of her peers on the University’s tenured faculty. Under the University Faculty Handbook, and to preserve the integrity of the process, no additional comment on the substance of the charges against Professor Wax is permitted at this time,” she added.

Since Wax joined the law school’s faculty, with tenure, on July 1, 2001, the letter said that her conduct has “created an environment where students, faculty, and staff believe they would be subjected to Wax’s discriminatory animus. The Law School has issued multiple and increasingly forceful statements condemning her behavior. In 2018, after publicly commenting on the academic performance and grade distributions of the Black students in her required first-year courses, Wax’s conduct necessitated a prophylactic policy removing her from teaching required courses.”

Then in January, Wax made several inflammatory and derogatory public comments, including proclaiming the United States would be “better off with fewer Asians and less Asian immigration.”

According to the letter, Wax also told a Black faculty colleague that it is “rational to be afraid of Black men in elevators.” Other instances of Wax’s racist comments were also detailed in Ruger’s letter.

Ruger said in his letter, that he provided Wax with “a written description of charges, which included a summary of the negative impact her harmful comments have on our community.”

Then he said that on May 11 he met with Wax to see if there could be an “informal resolution” of the matter. But, he said, “Wax objected to the continuation of this process given her health concerns, and in a May 24, 2022 letter to Wax, I outlined the medical leave options available to all Law faculty, but noted that absent her request for medical leave, I would invoke the just cause procedures outlined in the Faculty Handbook. To my knowledge, Wax has not requested a leave.” The health concerns were not specified.

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