Randall Kennedy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Randall L. Kennedy
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Kennedy in 2016
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| Born |
Randall LeRoy Kennedy
September 10, 1954 Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.
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| Education | Princeton University (BA) Balliol College, Oxford Yale University (JD) |
| Occupation | Law professor |
| Spouse(s) |
Yvedt Matory
(m. 1986; died 2005) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
Randall LeRoy Kennedy (born September 10, 1954) is an American law professor and writer. He is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University. His work focuses on how laws and disagreements between different racial groups affect each other in American life. He is an expert on contracts, freedom of expression, race relations law, and the Supreme Court.
Kennedy has written seven books on topics like race, law, and history. He has also published many collections of his essays and articles.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Randall LeRoy Kennedy was born on September 10, 1954, in Columbia, South Carolina. His father, Henry Kennedy Sr., worked for the post office, and his mother, Rachel Kennedy, was an elementary school teacher. He is the middle of three children. His brother, Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., was a federal judge, and his sister, Angela Kennedy, is a lawyer.
Growing up, Kennedy often heard stories about the struggles for racial equality. His father told him about watching Thurgood Marshall, a famous lawyer who later became a Supreme Court Justice, argue a case that allowed Black people to vote in South Carolina's Democratic primary. Because of the unfair Jim Crow laws in the South, his parents moved the family to Washington, D.C.
Kennedy went to St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Princeton University in 1977 with a degree in history. He then studied at Balliol College, Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar. After that, he attended Yale Law School and earned his law degree in 1982. At Yale, he was an editor for the Yale Law Journal, a student-run legal magazine.
After law school, Kennedy worked as a law clerk for two important judges. First, he clerked for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Then, he clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Career as a Professor and Writer
Teaching at Harvard
In 1984, Kennedy became a professor at Harvard Law School. He teaches classes about race, law, and freedom of expression. He became well-known for his writings on affirmative action, which are policies designed to help groups that have faced discrimination.
In 1997, he published Race, Crime, and the Law. The book won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award in 1998. In the book, Kennedy argues that the American criminal justice system has often been unfair to African Americans. He also writes that it is important to protect Black communities from crime.
Exploring Difficult Topics
Kennedy is known for not being afraid to discuss difficult social issues, especially racism. He has written for many magazines and newspapers. His views have earned him both praise and criticism. "I actually question the premise of my own thinking and push my own conclusions hard," Kennedy once said. "I thought that was what intellectuals were supposed to do."
He is a strong supporter of freedom of speech. He believes that protecting all kinds of speech, even offensive speech, helps minority groups who need to protest to make their voices heard.
In 2002, Kennedy published a controversial book titled ...: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word. The book explores the history of a powerful and offensive racial slur. Kennedy examines how the word's meaning changes depending on who is using it and why. He argues that this specific word is tied to more harm in American history than other racial slurs.
In his 2003 book, Interracial Intimacies: ..., Marriage, Identity and Adoption, Kennedy wrote about relationships between people of different races. He believes that until Americans deal with racial bias in their personal lives, racism will continue to be a problem. He supports the adoption of children by parents of a different race. He also explores the history of interracial marriages in America.
Views and Debates
Kennedy's ideas have sometimes been controversial, even with other Black thinkers. Some have called his work conservative. They worry that his books might be used by people who do not support racial equality.
When asked about the controversy his work causes, Kennedy said he is not afraid of criticism. "What's the worst that happens? That someone writes a very long diatribe... I'm not facing firing squads, I'm not facing exile, I'm not facing jail."
Kennedy has also shared his views on other important issues. He strongly criticized a Supreme Court decision in the case Shelby County v. Holder, which he felt weakened voting rights laws that many people had fought for. He also has opinions on the justice system. While he believes the system has many problems and is often unfair, he does not support movements to completely get rid of prisons or police. He is against the death penalty.
Personal Life
In 1986, Kennedy married Yvedt Matory, a cancer surgeon. They had three children together. Matory passed away in 2005.
Works
- 1997. Race, Crime, and the Law
- 2002. ...: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word
- 2003. Interracial Intimacies: ..., Marriage, Identity and Adoption
- 2008. Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal
- 2011. The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
- 2013. For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law
- 2021. Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture
Awards
- National Achievement scholarship, 1973–77
- Rhodes scholarship, 1977–79
- Earl Warren Legal Training scholarship, 1979–82
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Chicago, 2024
See Also
- List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10)
