Harvard and Yale invite Emerita Professor Montoya to speak on Critical Race Theory

March 31, 2016 - Tamara Williams

Professor Emerita Margaret Montoya
Emerita Professor Montoya

On Feb 18-20, Professor Emerita Margaret Montoya spoke at the Harvard Latino Law Conference and did a teach-in in Belinda Hall for the #Reclaim HLS (Harvard Law School) students.  

 The Reclaim students have been organizing and making demands of the administration since the portraits of the Black law professors were defaced with black tape on November 27, 2015. Among the demands being made is the creation of a Critical Race Theory (CRT) program.  

 On Feb. 15, the Reclaim students occupied a student lounge and named it "Belinda Hall" in honor of one of the slaves owned by the Royall family who provided funds for the founding of Harvard Law School.

 La Alianza, the Harvard Latino law student organization, invited Profs. Montoya and Juan Perea (Loyola-Chicago) to provide an overview of CRT and to do teaching demonstrations of CRT.  

 Following in the footsteps of the CRT founders of the 1980s, the Reclaim students are now organizing a series of lectures and mini-courses on CRT and have invited Montoya to teach Critical Race Torts. 

 In collaboration with the Harvard Reclaim students, the 2016 Yale CRT conference organizers invited Montoya to be part of the panel on the Belinda Hall activities and to continue the conversation about the demands being made on HLS.  The Yale CRT conference will be held on April 9, 2016.