Buxton Books is proud to be the booksellers for The Charleston Library Society as they welcome Judge Richard Gergel in conversation with Randall Kennedy.
Don’t miss this rare audience with two of the country’s leading legal figures. On Thursday, November 2, Judge Richard Gergel will host the distinguished Harvard Law School professor and constitutional law scholar Randall Kennedy to discuss an important, yet little-known South Carolinian, whose remarkable life offers a unique perspective on the state’s history since World War II.
The story of Dr. Thaddeus Bell is a gripping account with enduring resonance—and one that only Professor Kennedy, given his family connections to Dr. Bell, as well as his experience clerking for Justice Thurgood Marshall, can tell.
This promises to be an intimate and illustrative conversation about the ways in which, despite confronting manifold racial wrongs, so many people from all backgrounds persevered to live bountiful lives worthy of memorialization and awareness.
Along with the Princeton Club of Charleston, we invite you to take part in this very special evening on Thursday, November 2, from 6:00pm–7:00pm.
Ticket prices are as follows:
Tickets: $25 for members, $35 for the public
Click here or call 843.723.9912 during box office hours (Monday–Thursday, 11:00AM to 4:00PM) to purchase tickets.
About Randall Kennedy:
Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications. His other books are For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law (2013), The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency (2011), Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal (2008), Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption (2003), and Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002). A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy is also a Trustee emeritus of Princeton University.
About Judge Richard Gergel:
Richard Gergel is a United States district judge who presides in the same courthouse in Charleston, where Judge Waties Waring once served. Waring is one of the central figures of Gergel’s book, “Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring” (Sarah Crichton). With his wife, Dr. Belinda Gergel, he also wrote In Pursuit of the Tree of Life: A History of the Early Jews of Columbia, South Carolina. A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Judge Gergel earned undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University.
About Dr. Thaddeus Bell:
Dr. Thaddeus Bell earned an undergraduate degree at South Carolina State College and a medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina. According to Professor Kennedy, he has been involved in a number of interesting ventures: Dr. Bell served as a ranger at Yellowstone National Park; attempted a professional football career via several unsuccessful try-outs for the Washington Redskins; was an elite runner who, at the age of 50, became the world champion in his age group (he also held the world record for the 100-meter dash); has been active in his churches, his fraternity, and in public education concerning medical affairs through radio broadcasts called “Closing the Gap;” and created (and continues to host) a summertime jazz festival in Charleston.
About the Princeton Club of Charleston:
The Princeton Club of Charleston is comprised of Princeton University alumni/ae, family, and faculty residing in the Charleston area.