Langston Scholars Writing Workshop

Langston Writing Workshop Meets at Denver Law

Denver Law was home to the Fourth Annual Langston Writing Workshop on July 11 thru 13, 2013. Twenty-four participants, African American male law professors from across the nation, presented scholarship and discussed recruitment and retention issues within the profession.

The Workshop is named for John Mercer Langston. Born in Virginia in 1829, Langston graduated from Oberlin College in 1849. Denied entry to law school, Langston read the law and in 1854 became Ohio’s first black lawyer. In 1868, he organized the law department at Howard University, and he became Virginia’s first African American U.S. Representative in 1888. Langston, Oklahoma, home to Langston University, is named for him.

This year’s Langston Writing Workshop kicked off with a Thursday evening reception, where the Langston scholars met members of the local Sam Cary Bar Association as well as faculty and staff from the University of Denver and its law school. Meetings followed the reception and filled Friday and Saturday. A dinner in downtown Denver capped three busy and productive days.

“This conference has always had intellectual rigor,” said Frank Rudy Cooper, Suffolk University Law School professor and one of the principal organizers of the Langston Workshop. “This year, thanks to great hosting by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, the camaraderie at the workshop reached its high point.”

Denver Law Associate Dean Catherine Smith said, “It was an honor to host Langston at DU. Hopefully, we will host similar workshops in our attempts to support each participant and to diversify the ranks of law professors. It is important that the leaders in our classrooms reflect the diversity in our country. This is a particularly challenge for us at DU Law where, though we have 80 full-time faculty, we do not have a single African-American male faculty-member.

Participants in the Fourth Annual Langston Writing Workshop:
Bret Asbury, Drexel University Earl Mack School of Law
Mario Barnes, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Frank Rudy Cooper, Suffolk University School of Law
Charlton Copeland, University of Miami School of Law
Mitch Crusto, Loyola University New Orleans School of Law
Jonathan Glater, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Michael Z. Green, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law
Justin Hansford, Saint Louis University School of Law
Vinay Harpalani, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law
Areto Imoukhuede, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center
H. Timothy Lovelace, Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Sheldon Bernard Lyke, Whittier Law School
Aman McLeod, University of Idaho College of Law
Spencer Overton, The George Washington University Law School
Ngai Pindell, UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law
Cedric Merlin Powell, University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law
Kindaka Sanders, Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law
Kenya JH Smith, Phoenix School of Law
Terry Smith, DePaul College of Law
Ben Spencer, Washington & Lee University School of Law
Christopher J. Tyson, Louisiana State University Paul M. Herbert Law Center
Carlton Waterhouse, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
Prentice White, Southern University Law Center
Kevin Woodson Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law