Discussion honors soldier and victim of hate-based crime in 1940s
North Carolina Central University (NCCU) School of Law announces the Private Booker T. Spicely Symposium on Friday, Sept. 22, at the NCCU Student Center, 500 Nelson St., from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The symposium will include a keynote, presentations and panel discussions designed to examine the impact of Jim Crow laws, hate-based crimes and the journey to justice. Margaret Burnham, university distinguished professor of law and affiliate professor of Africana studies at Northeastern University, will serve as the keynote speaker.
Private Spicely was a U.S. Army soldier stationed at Camp Butner, North Carolina. In 1944, during a visit to Durham, he was shot to death by a Duke Power Company bus driver for allegedly violating the Jim Crow segregation laws prevalent at the time.
In 2014, Northeastern law student Shaneka Davis investigated Spicely’s case, while assigned to the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Center. Those efforts led to the formation of the Booker T. Spicely Committee spearheaded by local civil rights attorneys in North Carolina.
In 2023, Duke Energy Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to NCCU School of Law Veterans Law Clinic to establish the Private Booker T. Spicely Endowed Scholarship Fund. The scholarship will benefit law students actively involved with and enrolled in the Veterans Law Clinic, and who are working on issues impacting the legal and civil rights of veterans.
The Private Booker T. Spicely Symposium is free and open to the public, with required online registration at law.nccu.edu.
