Ogletree Addresses Congress

Climenko Professor of Law Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. urged Congress last Tuesday to investigate racial inequalities in the nation’s education and justice systems, and said the federal government should pressure states to rectify these inequalities.

Speaking in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Ogletree—who is an advisor to the lawyers of the six black students controversially indicted in Jena, La. earlier this year—said that the Jena case highlights larger problems in the American legal and education systems.

“Jena’s most important role is in lending drama and immediacy to a long-standing, worsening problem,” he told the committee, alleging differences in the way students are treated in schoolrooms and courthouses according to their race.

Ogletree said that black youths are suspended at far higher rates than their white counterparts, which increases their likelihood of dropping out, which in turn increases their chance of incarceration.

Richard Cohen, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Ogletree was effective in pointing out the “schoolhouse to jailhouse pipeline.”

Cohen also testified before the committee.

To address these racial disparities, Ogletree suggested the creation of a system that earmarks schools which suspend black students at a disproportionate rate.

Ogletree testified alongside Cohen, Rev. Al Sharpton, local U.S. District Attorney Donald W. Washington, and others.

Ogletree, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1978, said in an interview that he is often asked for advice on legal issues by committee chairman Rep. John Conyers, Jr.

At Harvard, Ogletree is the director of the Houston Institute for Race & Justice, a center focused on resolving racial discrimination in the justice system. Ogletree founded the center in 2005.