Margaret Burnham

Professor, Northeastern University School of Law

...laws exist only insofar as they are interpreted and enforced by the officials entrusted with upholding them. 

Lynching Memorial Forces Us To Confront Our Racist Past — And Present

This photo shows part of the display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a new memorial to honor thousands of people killed in lynchings, Monday, April 23, 2018, in Montgomery, Ala. The memorial and an accompanying museum that open this week in Montgomery are a project of the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group in Montgomery. (Brynn Anderson/AP)

Lynching Memorial

Commentary

Racism

race

Crime & Justice

Life

News

Opinion

Abigail Fisher, who challenged the use of race in college admissions, joined by lawyer Edward Blum, right, speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, following oral arguments in the Supreme Court. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Guixue Zhou of North Potomac, Md., left, and Samuel Yan, of Loudoun County, Va., protest against racial quotas during a rally outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, as the court hears oral arguments in the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin affirmative action case. At right is Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., speaking in solidarity with the Asian American Coalition for Education protest. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Sessions Feigns Concern For Asian-Americans To Gut Affirmative Action

Supreme Court Affirmative Action

Education

Politics

The street actions are as much about demonstrating what a Great America looks like as they are about the demand for one.

President Obama speaks about the events in Dallas at the beginning of his news conference at PGE National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Orlando, Baton Rouge, St. Paul and Dallas, while different from each other, are connected by the uniquely American fault-lines of hatred and firearms.

The Most Important Moment For Civil Rights This Century Is Upon Us

A protester yells at police in front of the Baton Rouge Police Department headquarters after police arrived in riot gear to clear protesters from the street in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, July 9, 2016. Several protesters were arrested. (Max Becherer/AP)

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#blacklivesmatter

Security

We've come a long way since 1962. But for people of color, the roads are still not entirely safe.

In this July 10, 2015, frame from dashcam video provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety, trooper Brian Encinia arrests Sandra Bland during a traffic stop in Waller County, Texas. Bland was taken to the Waller County Jail that day and was found dead in her cell on July 13. (AP) 

<img src="https://media.wbur.org/wp/2015/07/0724_Sandra-Bland_cog.jpg" alt="In this July 10, 2015, frame from dashcam video provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety, trooper Brian Encinia arrests Sandra Bland during a traffic stop in Waller County, Texas. Bland was taken to the Waller County Jail that day and was found dead in her cell on July 13. (AP) " width="592" height="324" class="size-large wp-image-28795" /> In this July 10, 2015, frame from dashcam video provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety, trooper Brian Encinia arrests Sandra Bland during a traffic stop in Waller County, Texas. Bland was taken to the Waller County Jail that day and was found dead in her cell on July 13. (AP)<br />

Police make instantaneous calculations about who to stop and who to arrest, and the traffic codes give them hundreds of reasons (or pretexts) to justify a stop.

What We Can Learn From Sandra Bland’s Tragic End

In this undated photo, Sandra Bland is pictured posing for the camera. (Courtesy Bland family)


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policy

The broken spines of the Freddie Grays have, before, been the last straw, the flame to the powder keg ... And yet we cannot seem to pull the curtain on this four-part play.

The absence of political will, not constitutional authority, explains the longstanding federal absence from the most charged arena of race relations in our national history.

Baltimore Wasn't The First City To Burn, And It Won't Be The Last

A police officer walks by a blaze, Monday, April 27, 2015, during unrest following the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Gray died from spinal injuries about a week after he was arrested and transported in a Baltimore Police Department van. (Matt Rourke/AP)


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Media

Sotomayor challenged a court enamored with post-racialism to step into her shoes, and to appreciate that but for old-fashioned affirmative action, she would not be among them.

Banning Affirmative Action: The California Story

<em>Schuette</em> forcefully demonstrates how much ground has actually been lost in the affirmative action debate since the early 1970s.

The New Great Dissenter: On Affirmative Action, Sotomayor Gets It Right

With her dissent of this week’s Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke for, embodied, embraced and evoked the minority whose interests were at stake. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

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Nowadays the only news that can be counted on to arouse those suffering from issue fatigue, or -- less justifiable -- willful blindness, are the decisions of juries in racially charged trials.

These shocking verdicts are the sentinel species in our criminal justice ecosystem.

Are We Finally Ready To Reduce Racial Bias In Our Courts?

Michael Dunn returns to the courtroom during jury deliberations in his trial in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday Feb. 13, 2014. Dunn was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting death of a teenager during an argument over loud music, but jurors could not agree on the most serious charge of first-degree murder. (Bob Mack/AP)

Margaret Burnham

Recently published

Lynching Memorial Forces Us To Confront Our Racist Past — And Present

Cognoscenti

Sessions Feigns Concern For Asian-Americans To Gut Affirmative Action

Cognoscenti

The Most Important Moment For Civil Rights This Century Is Upon Us

Cognoscenti

What We Can Learn From Sandra Bland’s Tragic End

Cognoscenti

Baltimore Wasn't The First City To Burn, And It Won't Be The Last

Cognoscenti

The New Great Dissenter: On Affirmative Action, Sotomayor Gets It Right

Cognoscenti

Are We Finally Ready To Reduce Racial Bias In Our Courts?

Cognoscenti