WASHINGTON — Howard University announced today the launch of the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy. The new center, which has been under development since 2023, will promote the vision and values articulated in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution through a multidisciplinary approach which connects several academic disciplines, including law, business, and the arts.  

The 14th Amendment Center will help to educate the community about the reach and depth of this amendment, considered by some the most important addition to our Constitution since the Bill of Rights and the central source of America's post-Civil War identity. The center will encourage law students, advocates, community activists, business leaders, artists, and ordinary Americans to work together and see themselves as “founders” of the next iteration of our democracy.  Based at the Howard University School of Law, the 14th Amendment Center will prioritize multidisciplinary teaching and scholarship with legal, educational, and cultural institutions.  

"The 14th Amendment forged principles of equality and due process that remain foundational to our understanding of justice and citizenship,” said Anthony K. Wutoh, Ph.D., R.Ph., Howard University provost and chief academic officer. “It's enduring legacy, constantly tested and reinterpreted, demands rigorous study in our universities today. To neglect its complexities is to misunderstand the very fabric of American society and to risk the erosion of rights it so fiercely sought to secure for all." 

Howard University Law School played a seminal role in shaping the 14th Amendment jurisprudence in the 20th century. Under the mentorship of Charles Hamilton Houston, the dean of Howard Law from 1929 to 1935, a team of lawyers, including legendary civil rights litigator Thurgood Marshall, developed a strategic litigation plan to end legal segregation in the United States and fulfill the 14th Amendment’s promise of “equal protection of laws.” Marshall, who became director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and our nation’s first Black Supreme Court justice, inspired generations of lawyers to enter the field of civil rights.    

“This new center, led by the inaugural Vernon E. Jordan, Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights Sherrilyn Ifill, will focus on multidisciplinary engagement around the 14th Amendment, a constitutional provision that remains critically relevant to our enduring struggle to achieve America’s promise for all,” said Roger Fairfax, dean of Howard Law. “Given Howard Law’s historical role as a guardian of the principles embedded in the amendment, I can think of no more appropriate institution to house the Center.”  

 Originally designed to ensure the full citizenship of Black people in this country, the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship and equal protection of laws. Its assignment to Congress with the power to protect those rights has led to legislation which has transformed the nation.   

“The launch of this Center comes at an important time in our country,” said Ifill. “It's ratification opened a new chapter in American democracy, and the boldness of its promise and vision remains to be fully realized.”  

Ifill, a civil rights lawyer who became the LDF’s seventh president and director-counsel and led the organization for nearly a decade, described “the struggle to realize fully the ambition of the 14th Amendment,” as “the defining constitutional battle of the 20th and 21st centuries. It is a battle as robustly fought today as ever in the courts, in states, and in the halls of Congress.”  

The center’s work is founded upon four pillars:  

• Law & Policy  
• Education and Curriculum 
• Art, Imagination, and Narrative  
• Democratic Institutions  

The center’s launch will include a full-day symposium featuring law professors, community activists, artists, judges, and elected officials engaged in dialogue about the 14th Amendment and how to contribute to the development of dynamic visions of democracy.  

In addition to Thurgood Marshall and Vernon Jordan, the long list of Howard Law alumni who have historically championed and preserved the 14th Amendment include Judge Robert Carter, former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder, and scholar and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray.   

For more information about the 14th Amendment Center, visit https://law.howard.edu/. 

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