In February 2021, Jerry Dickinson, Pitt Law Associate Professor, argued in an essay that “Pittsburgh is America’s apartheid city.” This coming academic year, the newly established Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, in collaboration with the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, the Office of Health Sciences Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Pitt Human Rights Working Group, and PublicSource, will host a series of panel discussions exploring Dickinson’s thesis. 

American Apartheid will kick off the series with an inaugural lecture by Albany Law School Professor Anthony Farley who will ground current conversations about racial inequity and impacts.

Additional participants include: 

• Jamil Bey, President & Chief Executive Officer, UrbanKind Institute
• William M. Carter, Co-director, Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice
• Jerry Dickinson, Associate Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh
• Ed Gainey, Mayor, City of Pittsburgh (invited)  
• Xan Phillips, Creative Writing Fellow, Center for African American Poetry & Poetics,
• Clyde W. Pickett, Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer, University of Pittsburgh,  
• Michele Reid-Vazquez, Founding Director, Center for Ethnic Studies Research, University of Pittsburgh,  
• Sheila Velez-Martinez, Co-director, Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice