Derrick Bell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Derrick Bell
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Derrick Bell in 2007
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Derrick Albert Bell Jr.
November 6, 1930 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Died | October 5, 2011 (aged 80) New York, New York, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Education | Duquesne University (AB) University of Pittsburgh School of Law (LL.B.) |
| Occupation | University professor, author |
| Employer | New York University School of Law University of Oregon School of Law Harvard Law School University of Southern California Law School |
| Known for | Critical race theory |
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Derrick Albert Bell Jr. (November 6, 1930 – October 5, 2011) was an American lawyer, professor, and civil rights activist. He dedicated his life to fighting for fairness and equality. Bell worked for the U.S. Justice Department and then the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he helped with over 300 school desegregation cases in Mississippi.
After working as a civil rights lawyer for ten years, Bell became a university professor. He taught at several well-known law schools, including Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American professor to get a permanent teaching position (called "tenure") in 1971. From 1991 until his death, Bell taught at New York University School of Law. He also served as a dean at the University of Oregon School of Law.
Derrick Bell wrote many important articles and books. He used his experiences as a lawyer and his research to study racism, especially how it affected the legal system. Bell is known as one of the main thinkers behind critical race theory, a way of looking at how race and racism have shaped laws and society.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Derrick Bell was born in 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, into a working-class family. He was the oldest of four children. Bell was the first in his family to go to college. He earned his bachelor's degree from Duquesne University.
In 1952, he joined the Air Force and served for two years, including one year in Korea. After his military service, he went to law school. In 1957, he received his law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He was the only Black graduate in his class. In 1960, Bell married Jewel Hairston, who was also a civil rights activist. They had three sons. After Jewel's death in 1990, he later married Janet Dewart.
Law Career and Civil Rights
After law school, Derrick Bell joined the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department. He was one of the few Black lawyers working there at the time. Bell was very interested in issues of race and justice.
Standing Up for Beliefs
In 1959, the Justice Department asked Bell to quit the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). They thought his membership might make people question his fairness. But Bell believed strongly in the NAACP's work. Instead of giving up his membership, he chose to leave the Justice Department.
Bell then joined the local NAACP chapter in Pittsburgh. Soon after, in 1960, he was asked by Thurgood Marshall to join the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF). The LDF was the legal arm of the NAACP, fighting against racist laws and segregation.
Fighting Segregation in Schools
At the LDF, Bell worked with other famous civil rights lawyers like Thurgood Marshall. He was sent to Mississippi to help with school desegregation cases. Life in Mississippi was difficult and dangerous for civil rights workers. Bell had to be very careful. He once faced unfair treatment for using a public phone booth that was meant only for white people.
Bell supervised over 300 school desegregation cases. He also supported James Meredith in his effort to attend the University of Mississippi. This was a big challenge, as the state's governor, Ross Barnett, tried to stop Meredith. Bell later said that he learned a lot about how people used the legal system to delay equality. He realized that change often only happened when people pushed for it through lawsuits.
Later in his life, Bell began to question some of the results of school integration. He noticed that often, after schools were desegregated, many white families moved away. This "white flight" sometimes meant schools remained segregated, just in a different way. These experiences led him to believe that racism is very deeply rooted in American society. He felt it could often find new ways to appear even after reforms tried to get rid of it.
Academic Career and Diversity
Derrick Bell spent the second half of his career teaching at universities. He worked at several well-known law schools and developed his ideas about race and law. He also wrote many books that are now key texts in the field of critical race theory. Bell was also committed to making university faculties more diverse. He worked hard to bring more professors from different backgrounds to schools like USC, Harvard, and NYU.
His students described his classes as very open-minded. Bell encouraged his students to think for themselves and form their own arguments, no matter their political views.
Teaching at Top Law Schools
Bell's first teaching job was in 1967 at the USC Gould School of Law in California. He then moved to Harvard Law School in 1969. Black students at Harvard had protested for a minority faculty member, and Bell was hired. In 1971, he became Harvard Law's first Black professor to receive tenure. During his time at Harvard, Bell created a new course on civil rights law. He also published his famous book, Race, Racism and American Law.
In 1980, Bell became the Dean of the University of Oregon School of Law. He taught a course there using his textbook. He later resigned from this position to protest the university's refusal to hire an Asian American candidate he had chosen for a faculty job.
Bell began teaching at New York University School of Law in 1991. He continued to write and lecture on race and civil rights issues there until his death.
Fighting for Faculty Diversity
Bell was a strong advocate for diversity among university professors. In 1986, he held a five-day sit-in at his office at Harvard. He was protesting the school's decision not to give permanent teaching positions to two professors who supported critical race theory. Many students supported his protest.
In 1990, Bell took an unpaid leave of absence from Harvard. He was unhappy that there were so few women, especially Black women, among the tenured professors. Students supported his decision. Harvard administrators said they had trouble finding qualified candidates. Bell wrote about this protest in his book Confronting Authority.
Bell's protest at Harvard caused some controversy. Some people criticized him, but he stood firm in his beliefs. After two years, Harvard still had not hired any minority women. Bell asked to extend his leave, but the school refused, which ended his time as a tenured professor there. Years later, in 1998, Harvard Law hired Lani Guinier, who became the law school's first Black female tenured professor.
Critical Race Theory
Derrick Bell is considered a very important thinker in the field of critical race theory (CRT). CRT is a way of looking at how race and racism have shaped laws and society in the United States. Bell's ideas challenged common views on civil rights.
His book Race, Racism and American Law, first published in 1973, is a foundational text for critical race theory. It has been printed continuously since then.
How Critical Race Theory Started
Bell's interest in studying racial issues in education grew after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case. This case ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. However, Bell noticed that this decision did not always lead to real progress for Black students.
In the 1970s, Bell studied the effects of desegregation. He believed that the Brown decision happened not just because of a moral change, but also because it helped the United States' interests during the Cold War. He argued that the U.S. wanted to improve its image globally by showing it was fighting racial injustice. Bell concluded that American schools should focus on improving the quality of education for Black students, rather than just forcing integration that often didn't work as planned.
Bell, along with other legal scholars like Kimberlé Crenshaw, started using the term "critical race theory." It built on ideas from "critical legal studies," which questioned traditional legal concepts. Bell's work was deeply influenced by his own experiences as a Black man and a civil rights lawyer. He wrote in a storytelling style, exploring racial issues through their economic, social, and political connections.
Key Ideas of Critical Race Theory
Bell's critical race theory is based on several main ideas:
- Racism is common: It's not just rare, extreme acts, but an everyday part of society.
- Racism benefits the dominant group: White people often gain advantages, both emotional and material, from the way society is set up.
- Race is a social idea: Race is not a biological fact, but a concept created by society and its relationships.
- Different groups are racialized at different times: Society treats different minority groups differently depending on its needs, like for labor.
- Intersectionality: People have many different identities (like race, gender, religion) that overlap and affect their experiences. No one has just one simple identity.
- Voice of color: People of color have unique experiences and insights about racism that white people may not understand. It's important for them to share their stories.
CRT has also led to the study of microaggressions. These are subtle, often unintentional, insults or put-downs directed at people of color.
For example, Bell argued that the people who wrote the U.S. Constitution chose to protect property rights over justice for all. He also believed that white people would support racial progress for Black people only when it also benefited white people's own interests. He called this the "interest convergence principle."
Literary Works
Derrick Bell also wrote science fiction short stories. One famous story is "The Space Traders". In this story, white Americans trade Black Americans to aliens in exchange for advanced technology. The story suggests that white people will act to protect their own interests. Bell explained that the story showed it's "better [to] risk the unknown in space than face the certainty of racial discrimination here at home." This story was made into a TV movie in 1994.
In 1992, Bell published a collection of short stories called "Faces at the Bottom of the Well". This book explored his idea that racism is a lasting part of American society.
Later Life and Legacy
Derrick Bell passed away on October 5, 2011, at the age of 80, from cancer. Even in his last week, he was still teaching his students. The dean at NYU Law School, Richard Revesz, said that Bell's passion for civil rights and justice had a deep impact on the law school community.
Bell's work and ideas continue to be important today. The University of Pittsburgh School of Law has honored him by naming a law library section and a community legal clinic after him. There are also fellowship positions named for Bell. Lectures about his teachings are still held at NYU Law School and Harvard Law School. These discussions explore his ideas about racism in America and the future of racial justice. Many people connect his teachings to modern movements like Black Lives Matter.
