Professor Mildred W. Robinson Presents Foulston Siefkin Lecture
Professor Mildred W. Robinson, University of Virginia School of Law, presented the 26th Annual Foulston Siefkin Lecture in the Robinson Courtroom and Bianchino Technology Center on Friday, February 20, 2004. Professor Robinson's lecture was entitled "Fulfilling Brown's Legacy: Bearing the Costs of Realizing Equality" and will appear as the lead article in the first issue of volume 44 of the Washburn Law Journal in Fall 2004.
Professor Robinson shared personal reflections on the Brown v. Board of Education decision, recalling her father's May 17, 1954 announcement to the students at the elementary school where he served as the principal. She noted that as a 4th grade student, she did not understand the ramifications of the announcement. Professor Robinson discussed the ensuing strife that divided the nation after the Brown decision. She discussed the separation between races and the progress in integration, prompted primarily by enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pointing out that school re-segregation has again become the norm, Professor Robinson addressed the need to stop this trend and the compromise of quality education for all students the trend presents.
After outlining the barriers to desegregation, Professor Robinson then explored the necessary financial considerations in moving from re-segregation to desegregation. She stressed the need to invest in both infrastructure and human capital and the importance of avoiding use of the taxing power in a manner that places the burden most heavily on those who have the least ability to pay. Since education is primarily funded from property tax, the burden tends to disproportionately fall on those living in urban areas. Professor Robinson posited that apportioning the cost for education through sales and income tax may be the fairest way to provide funding.
Professor Robinson concluded her lecture with a quote from her eldest daughter's law school admission essay. She stated that Brown v. Board brought about a legal change that resulted in a "social metamorphosis" in the next generation that righted a great wrong.
Mildred W. Robinson is the Henry L. and Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. She received her B.A. from Fisk University, her J.D. from Howard University's School of Law and her LL.M. from Harvard Law School. Prior to moving to Virginia in 1984, she served 12 years on the faculty at Florida State, where she received the President's Award for excellence in teaching and served as associate dean for academic affairs.
Professor Robinson has served on the Board of Trustees of the Law School Admission Council and was a member of the inaugural Board of Directors for Law Access, Inc. (currently The Access Group). She was a Commissioner from Virginia to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws from 1990-94 and was a member of the Board of Visitors for the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University from 1993-96. She is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools and of the American Law Institute. She also serves as a trustee on the board of the Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville. Professor Robinson teaches courses in taxation and trusts and estates; she has published extensively in the field of taxation.
Since 1978, the Foulston Siefkin Lecture has been sponsored by the Wichita law firm of Foulston Siefkin LLP to enrich the quality of education at Washburn University School of Law. This lecture series brings a prominent legal scholar to Washburn Law to challenge and enhance the legal thinking of our students, faculty, and the Washburn Law Journal readership. Articles derived from the Foulston Siefkin Lecture are published in the Washburn Law Journal.
Robin K. Carlson contributed the summary of Professor Robinson's lecture to this article.
