The Eighth Annual CUNY BMI conference, Race, Law and Justice, will feature morning, early afternoon, and late afternoon keynote lectures as well as morning and afternoon panel discussions. The general theme of our morning panel discussions will be focused on the racial history of the United States of America. We hope that the morning sessions will create a foundation for our afternoon panel discussions by providing a general historical background of race and racism in criminal justice, education, housing, residential segregation, employment and other social arenas. Additionally, the morning panel discussions will explore African American/Black and Latino/Hispanic resistance to systems of oppression and exclusion as well as ongoing struggles for equality in a wide variety of social arenas. Further, the afternoon panel discussions will explore the vestiges of slavery and segregation in contemporary American society. In short, the Eighth Annual CUNY BMI conference is dedicated to exposing CUNY BMI undergraduates to the racial history of the struggle for equality and the manifestation of that ongoing struggle in contemporary American society.

Our Eighth Annual CUNY BMI Conference will feature the following three (3) outstanding keynote speakers:

(1) Juan Cartagena, one of the nation's leading civil rights lawyers, President and General Counsel, LatinoJustice/PRLDEF, formerly the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Educational Fund

(Morning Keynote Speaker);

(2) Paul Butler, one of the nation's leading critical race theorists, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

(Early Afternoon Keynote Speaker);

and

(3) Ron Daniels, the former leader of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Distinguished Lecturer, York College/CUNY

(Late Afternoon Keynote Speaker).