Minami Tamaki LLP Senior Counsel Dale Minami (right) with panelists (from left to right) Lisa Holder, Megan Ming Francis, Shauna Marshall, Eva Paterson, and Nusrat J. Choudhury. Photo by Bob Hsiang.
Minami Tamaki LLP Senior Counsel Dale Minami served on a panel at “The Impact of Slavery on American Jurisprudence and Activism Public,” a panel held February 21, 2019, in the Judge Thelton Henderson Ceremonial Courtroom at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco.
The event was produced by the Equal Justice Society. EJS President Eva Paterson moderated the panel discussion with Dale, Nusrat J. Choudhury, Lisa Holder, Shauna Marshall, and Megan Ming Francis.
Panelists explored lawsuits brought by enslaved people, rebellions against the cruelty that was a feature of slavery, activism challenging Jim Crow, changes in American jurisprudence that flowed from their quest for “equal justice under law,” and how the efforts of African Americans shaped the activism of other groups in our country. Panelists explored the origins of racism and ways to minimize its impact.
The panel was the first event in EJS’s “Remembering 1619” year-long observance of the 400th anniversary slavery in the United States. Twenty Africans landed at Jamestown Virginia in August of 1619. “In the 400 years that Africans have been here, their history has been full of struggle, resistance, and the achievement of excellence despite all the barriers erected,” writes EJS.