Notably, Bell was the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School. In addition, his book, Race, Racism and American Law, first penned in 1973 and now in its sixth edition, is a foundation at law schools nationwide.
He walked the walk, confronting civil rights injustices often by resigning positions of authority and prestige, including quitting his job at the Justice Department after refusing to obey an order to resign from the NAACP because he was told it was a conflict of interest, resigning his position as dean of University of Oregon School of Law when the school didn't offer a faculty position to an Asian-American woman, and refusing to return to his position at Harvard until a black woman was added to its tenured faculty.
Beyond his many significant, lifetime accomplishments, perhaps some of his comments during a 1992 interview with Terry Gross, host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, a radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio, offers some lasting, and meaningful insight into the very heart of Derrick Bell. An excerpt of his comments follows, per the October 7th npr.org article, “ ‘Stand Up, Speak Out,’ Derrick Bell Told Law Students”:
“In all my courses, I really have to teach the basic messages of my life ... that the rewards, the satisfactions, are not in being partner or making a million dollars, but in recognizing evils, recognizing injustices and standing up and speaking out about them even in absolutely losing situations where you know it's not going to bring about any change — that there are intangible rewards to the spirit that make that worthwhile.”
“…if only a few students get that message, then those few students — to the extent that they are able to practice it in their own lives — will receive the kind of spiritual soul-satisfying dividends that I think I've received.”
On knowing when to step aside so others can lead:
“I learned this hard lesson as a civil rights lawyer, when during the ‘60s I would fly into town and meet with several groups, and take down all the information about their problems and the discrimination and the schools and the public accommodations, and fly back to New York and prepare the complaints and get them filed and handle the cases. ... And I thought that my place in heaven was assured. But looking back on it, I see that ... my flying in was really usurping the leadership potential of many local people who, even after I won the case, if they didn't organize and inform their constituencies of what had been done through the courts, nothing would change. ... I am much more humble with regard to my role today than I was as a young civil rights lawyer.”
Described as a “soft spoken, erudite” man in the October 6th nytimes.com article, “Derrick Bell, Law Professor and Rights Advocate, Dies at 80”, Bell's comments describe lessons and wisdom garnered over a lifetime regarding humility, instincts and perspective.
Also according to the nytimes.com article, Bell was “a pioneer of critical race theory — a body of legal scholarship that explored how racism is embedded in laws and legal institutions, even many of those intended to redress past injustices. Too, Bell counted among his core beliefs what he termed “the interest convergence dilemma”, a concept that “whites would not support efforts to improve the position of blacks unless it was in their interest.” Additionally, he felt that even favorable rulings regarding civil rights would “probably yield disappointing results and that it was best to be prepared for that.”
Beyond his obvious intelligence, and insight, not only into legal, but life issues, perhaps what impresses me, a writer, most about Derrick Bell is his use of storytelling to educate.
The nytimes.com article describes his use of parables and allegories about race relations in both books and law review articles, and the discussions with the fictional Professor Geneva Crenshaw, who “forced him to confront the truth about racism in America.”
In this manner, Bell made a lasting, and innovative contribution to legal scholarship. Put plainly, what one of us doesn't enjoy a good story? Stories resonate. One only need pick up the Bible to know it's true. Simply brilliant, Bell brought this timeless, cherished vehicle for communicating, entertaining and educating to bear in the legal profession, one which transcends generations, class, and race — and perhaps this could be counted among Bell's greatest achievements.
Undoubtedly, the foundations he laid throughout his life, in word and deed, will go on to inspire countless individuals inside, and outside of the legal profession.
