Heman Sweatt Symposium to Address Freedom of Speech
Event: Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement at UT Austin, will discuss freedom of speech at the Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights, a monthly speaker series hosted by the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. This year’s event is titled “The Contours of Free Speech on a College Campus.”
Where: UT Law School, Francis Auditorium (TNH 2.114)
When: Wednesday, April 12, 4:30-6 p.m.
Stream: The event will be streamed via Facebook Live at: https://www.facebook.com/UTDDCE
Background: Within recent years, racially-charged incidents on campus and around the globe have been raising questions about the freedom of speech. Dr. Vincent will explore this topic, providing a legal perspective of the constitutional freedoms and boundaries of the First Amendment.
Free and open to the public, the event is in conjunction with Vincent’s spring 2017 law class, Race and the Law: Exploring the Law through Critical Race Theory and Other Lenses. To RSVP, send an email to rsvp-ddce@austin.utexas.edu.
About the Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights: The Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights, started in 1986, is an annual event organized by students, faculty and staff. The symposium is named after Heman Marion Sweatt, the first African American admitted into the university’s School of Law after the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Sweatt v. Painter in 1950. That decision paved the way for admission of African Americans to formerly segregated colleges and universities across the nation and for the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education four years later.