Transcription

WILLIAMSBURG -- Richmond lawyer Jeroyd X. Greene, denied a position in the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary last spring, will deliver a series of seven lectures at the college beginning Nov. 18.

Greene has been invited to deliver the lectures by an ad hoc group of 45 faculty and administration members, each of whom has pledged to donate one day's pay to cover Green's costs.

In a statement announcing the lecture series Wednesday, the group said that Greene's opinions "warrant the serious consideration of this community. We trust that our voluntary commitment of funds will enable us and our students to have the kind of creative dialogue with Mr. Greene that would have been possible had he been appointed to a position on the faculty."

Greene's lectures, to be delivered over the next four months, will have as their theme law, justice and racism.

According to Greene, the lectures are an "attempt to analyze and articulate the growing feeling among racially and economically disenfranchised groups in this country that there is, in fact, no justice for them in the courts of this nation."

The William and Mary board of visitors voted last spring not to hire Greene, following the recommendation of President Thomas A. Graves Jr., after Greene had already been offered a part-time position on the law school faculty by law school Dean James P. Whyte Jr.

News of the law school's overtures to Greene brought criticism. State Sen. Edward W. Willey of Richmond, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a letter to Whyte that if Greene were hired it would influence Willey's support for appropriations to the law school.

Graves' Stand

Graves, in recommending to the visitors that Greene's appointment not be approved, noted that Greene had been held in contempt of court several times.

The first for Greene's lectures will be delivered on successive Monday night at 8 o'clock in Millington Auditorium. After a break for the holidays, the series will resume at 8 p.m. Jan. 27 and continue the next two Monday nights.

The last lecture, to be delivered Feb. 10 in Phi Beta Kappa Hall, will be Greene's discussion of his own case.

A graduate of the Yale law school, Greene was honored Nov. 2 in New Orleans by the National Conference of Black Lawyers as the outstanding black lawyer of the year.

Document Type

News Article

Publication Information

Richmond Times-Dispatch at B-6 (November 7, 1974)

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