Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., a mentor to U.S. President Barack Obama and attorney to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will be the keynote speaker of the University of the Virgin Islands Alfred O. Heath Distinguished Lecture Series. He will speak on the topic: “The Impact of President Obama’s Reelection on Gun Violence in the Virgin Islands.” The lectures are scheduled for April 4, at the Reichhold Center for the Arts on UVI's St. Thomas campus and April 5, in the Great Hall on the Albert A. Sheen Campus on St. Croix. The public is invited to both events which begin at 6 p.m. and are free.
Ogletree is the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and a prominent legal theorist. He has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at the complex issues of law, and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. Ogletree is the founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Huston Institute for Race and Justice, which has engaged in a wide range of educational, legal and policy issues. He is the author of “The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America.” Ogletree has written several other books, and has received many national awards and honorary degrees.
