On Friday, Jan. 29, the Carleton College weekly convocation will be presented by Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP and director of the Community Justice Project, an award-winning civil rights legal clinic in St. Paul. In an address entitled, “The Time for Justice is Now,” Levy-Pounds will outline her efforts to promote the law as a tool to advance social justice in poor communities of color.
Carleton convocations are free and open to the public. They are also recorded and archived for online viewing at go.carleton.edu/convo/.
A professor of law at the University of St. Thomas and a nationally recognized expert on civil rights and social justice, Levy-Pounds founded the Community Justice Project (CJP) in 2006, a partnership between St. Thomas’ School of Law and the St. Paul chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The CJP provides law students with opportunities to work with underserved communities and promotes the law as a tool to advance the cause of social justice in poor communities of color through problem-solving, legal research and writing, community engagement and legislative advocacy.
In 2015, she was elected president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP; Levy-Pounds has stated she hopes to increase youth engagement with the NAACP during her tenure. In 2014, she was named Attorney of the Year in by Minnesota Lawyer magazine.
Levy-Pounds is also a co-founder of Brotherhood, Inc., an organization dedicated to helping young African American men stay away from gang activity and prison. Additionally, she chairs the Minnesota State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.
An expert on issues at the intersection of race, law, criminal justice, public education and public policy, Levy-Pounds is a regular contributor to the Star Tribune, the Pioneer Press, MinnPost, and Minnesota Public Radio. In her research, she focuses on the War on Drugs, incarceration, mandatory sentencing and sentencing guidelines, primarily as they affect women and children of color but also young black men.
Originally from Jackson, Mississippi, Levy-Pounds received her BA from the University of Southern California and her JD from the University of Illinois College of Law. More at www.nekimalevypounds.com.
This event is sponsored by the Carleton College Convocations Committee. For more information, including disability accommodations, call (507) 222-4308. The Skinner Memorial Chapel is located on the Carleton campus at the corner of First and College Streets in Northfield.
