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TO HONOR AND COMMEND CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATE, AUTHOR, AND LAW PROFESSOR MICHELLE ALEXANDER FOR HER HARD WORK AND DEDICATION TO THE COMMUNITY.
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WHEREAS, Professor Alexander joined the OSU faculty in 2005, won a 2005 Soros Justice Fellowship and now holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity; and
WHEREAS, prior to joining the OSU faculty, she was a member of the Stanford Law School faculty, where she served as Director of the Civil Rights Clinic; and
WHEREAS, Professor Alexander has significant experience in the field of civil rights advocacy and has litigated civil rights cases in private practice as well as engaged in innovative litigation and advocacy efforts in the non-profit sector; and
WHEREAS, for several years, Professor Alexander served as the Director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California, which spearheaded a national campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement; and
WHEREAS, while an associate at Saperstein, Goldstein, Demchak & Baller, she specialized in plaintiff-side class action suits alleging race and gender discrimination; and
WHEREAS, Professor Alexander is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University and following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court, and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and
WHEREAS, Professor Alexander has authored the book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness which examines how the war on drugs has disproportionably affected African Americans. Her book was written in the tradition of Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and explores human rights problems related to the inequities of drug war prosecutions and suggests solutions and her book was nominated as the 2013 Stowe Prize Winner; and
WHEREAS, Professor Alexander's book spent six weeks on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GAHANNA, STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That this Council hereby honors and commends CIVIL RIGHTS ADVOCATE AND LAW PROFESSOR MICHELLE ALEXANDER for her hard work and dedication to the community.
Section 2. That this Resolution shall be in full force and effect immediately after passage by this Council.