2026 Dean’s Distinguished Black History Month Lecture

About the Lecture

This lecture will reflect on the history of civil rights lawyers, specifically the work of law schools in training lawyers like Thurgood Marshall and Pauli Murray to reshape constitutional history. In this era when the meaning of the Civil War Amendments and civil rights laws are being challenged, what is the role of civil rights lawyers? What is the role of law schools in training civil rights lawyers?

About Danielle Holley

Mount Holyoke College’s 20th president, Danielle Holley, is an authority on American higher education and a distinguished scholar of civil rights and equity. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is the co-chair of the Board of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and an Aspen Institute Liberty and Aspen-Kern Fellow. As a member of Governor Maura Healey’s DRIVE Acceleration Team, she works with leaders from across the state to grow Massachusetts’ research and innovation economy. She is Dean Emerita of the Howard University School of Law.

A professor of politics, President Holley’s areas of expertise include desegregation, racial discrimination and affirmative action, the history of the civil rights movement, diversifying K-12 pipelines to higher education, admission of undocumented immigrants to public colleges and universities, women in academic leadership, and reproductive rights. She is a leading scholar of the Supreme Court decisions regarding race-conscious college and university admissions. Her insights are routinely sought by leading media outlets including NBC, CNN, NPR, and the Boston Globe.

President Holley is overseeing a remarkable next chapter for Mount Holyoke College. With the MHC Forward Strategic Plan, the College is preparing students for lives of purposeful leadership in a changing world.