Lani Guinier
 Lani Guinier is a
leading advocate for political reform. Possessing a
unique and arresting insight, she offers audiences
plausible and effective solutions to our imperfect
democratic system while embracing constitutional
principles.
Guinier was inspired at a young age by
trailblazing civil rights attorney Constance Baker
Motley. As a youth, Guinier saw Baker Motley on
television escorting James Meredith through a jeering
white crowd to integrate the University of Mississippi
in 1962. Following in Baker Motley’s footsteps, Guinier
joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In the 1980’s, she
headed LDF’s Voting Rights program, litigating cases
throughout the South.
Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of
Law at Harvard Law School, was the first black woman to
be appointed to a tenured professorship at Harvard Law.
The author of numerous articles on democratic theory,
political representation, educational equity and issues
of race and gender, Guinier was first introduced to the
public in 1993, when President Clinton nominated her to
be the first black woman to head the Civil Rights
Division of the Department of Justice.
She had been a civil rights
attorney for more than 10 years and had served in the
Civil Rights Division during the Carter Administration
as special assistant to then Assistant Attorney General
Drew S. Days. Immediately after her name was put forward
in 1993, opponents to her nomination attacked Guinier’s
maverick views on democracy and voting. Clinton withdrew
her nomination before a confirmation hearing. Since
then, Guinier has used varied public platforms to speak
out on issues of race, gender and democratic
decision-making and to call for open public discourse on
these issues.
Guinier has written extensively in law review articles,
books, and op-ed pieces about new ways of approaching
old problems, including issues of affirmative action,
the “testocracy,” gender equity and race-conscious
political districting.
Before joining the Harvard Law School faculty,
Guinier was a tenured professor at the University of
Pennsylvania for 10 years. At Harvard, Guinier teaches
courses on professional responsibility for public
lawyers, law and the political process and perspectives
on race, gender, class and social change.
Guinier pioneered Racetalks (www.racetalks.org),
a public education initiative designed around the idea
that Americans must talk about race but most do not know
how. The project seeks to create a space for these
critical conversations to occur. The goal of the program
is to push students to challenge the adequacy of
established categories of race and gender, issues of
professionalism and the conventions of legal analysis,
and to create occasions for critical thinking and
problem-solving. She is the author of
Lift Every Voice, The Tyranny of the
Majority, Who’s Qualified? and The
Miner’s Canary.
Guinier has been recognized for her achievements
with many awards and accolades, including: the Champion
of Democracy Award from the National Women's Political
Caucus; the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement
Award from the ABA Commission on Women in the
Profession; the Rosa Parks Award from the American
Association of Affirmative Action; the Big Sisters
Award; the Sacks-Freund Award for Teaching Excellence
from Harvard Law School; and the Harvey Levin Teaching
Award, given to her by her students at the University of
Pennsylvania Law School.
Guinier received her bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College in
1971 and graduated from Yale University Law School in
1974.
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