{"id":263478,"date":"2026-06-11T18:16:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263478\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T18:16:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T18:16:11","slug":"freedom-must-be-protected-franklin-h-williams-judicial-commission-holds-juneteenth-symposium-in-lower-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/263478\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Freedom must be protected\u2019: Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission holds Juneteenth symposium in Lower Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

In celebration of Juneteenth, the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission<\/a> delivered a sweeping message about racial equality at its annual Juneteenth Symposium, titled \u201cReviving Reconstruction: America\u2019s Unfulfilled Promise\u201d on June 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The full-day program, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan, included experts in law, academia, and public service<\/a> who discussed modern forms of racial inequity in the American court system.<\/p>\n

\u201cJuneteenth must not be celebrated simply as a day off,\u201d Associate Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals Shirley Troutman said. \u201cIt is instead an opportunity to reflect upon the past and to ensure that all Americans are ever mindful that freedom is not only something that must be valued, it must be protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission, named after its founder and civil rights lawyer, diplomat and co-organizer of the Peace Corps Franklin H. Williams, was formed as the nation\u2019s first committee dedicated to improving racial equality in the courts. It was formalized in 1991 when it released a detailed report that found a severe lack of racial diversity on the bench and a perception among some New Yorkers that minorities are not fairly treated in the courts.<\/p>\n

The Juneteenth program examined the Reconstruction Amendments, Supreme Court jurisprudence, and modern challenges to racial equity initiatives. The program highlights the unfinished work of Reconstruction and its enduring relevance today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fierce urgency of now is what Martin Luther King talked about,\u201d said the symposium\u2019s keynote speaker Anthony Paul Farley, a professor of Jurisprudence at Albany Law School. \u201cLet\u2019s make now something in our lives, not later, not dreams that may one day come true somewhere over a rainbow or on a mountaintop or in some promised land that votes against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farley gave a provocative speech in which he compared the ideology of MAGA Republicans to the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson segregationist legal doctrine, which he pointed out was never about equality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember when this [decision] came up in law school is that dissents are important and dissents grow and they\u2019re seeds for the future,\u201d Farley said. \u201cI want you to forget all that. Let\u2019s win all of our cases now, not on appeal to history.\u201d<\/p>\n

One panel discussion, moderated by Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department Troy K. Webber featured a conversation on historical challenges to racial equity within the courts.<\/p>\n

Another moderated by Director of the Center for Health Equity at Evergreen Lenora FooteBeavers, discussed pathways to advance racial equity after the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, which mandated race-neutral college admissions. <\/p>\n

\"\"From left, a panel of Tahanie Aboushi, Debo Adegbile and Vincent Southerland discuss the Suprem Court of the United States record on racial equity.Photo by Gregory Alexander \"\"From left. Melissa Andrieux,
partner at Dorf Nelson & Zauderer, and Professor Bernard K. Freamon discuss the 2023 supreme court decision that blocked race as a college admissions criteria.Photo by Gregory Alexander \"\"Photo by Gregory Alexander \"\"Associate Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals Shirley Troutman speaks at the Franklin H. Wiliams Judicial Commission\u2019s symposium.Photo by Gregory Alexander \"\"Executive Director of Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission gives closing remarks at the commission\u2019s symposium.Photo by Gregory Alexander<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In celebration of Juneteenth, the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission delivered a sweeping message about racial equality at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[102150,7021,102151,102152,102153,102154,91075,97859,96881,102155,75,84,83,9,24,1181,63,102156,32072,66632,2973],"class_list":["post-263478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-affirmative-action","tag-civil-rights","tag-court-reform","tag-diversity-on-the-bench","tag-equity-in-education","tag-franklin-h-williams-judicial-commission","tag-judicial-system","tag-juneteenth","tag-legal-history","tag-legal-symposium","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-courts","tag-nyc","tag-racial-equality","tag-racial-justice","tag-reconstruction","tag-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}