Past MLK Remembrance Events
- Past MLK Events
2026: Antonio C. Lee
Antonio C. Lee
Assistant United States Attorney, Civil Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana at the U.S. Department of Justice and President, Cook County Bar AssociationWednesday, January 21, 2026
Antonio C. Lee serves as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Indiana at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represents the federal government in civil matters.
A committed public servant, Mr. Lee has built his legal career on advancing civil rights and promoting equity through government service and bar leadership. He previously worked as a Cook County assistant state’s attorney, where he handled civil rights and tort litigation in state, appellate and federal courts. Earlier in his career, he was selected for the Presidential Management Fellows program and served as an attorney advisor at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He also worked with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service.
Mr. Lee currently serves as president of the Cook County Bar Association, the nation’s oldest association of African American lawyers and judges. He also holds leadership roles in the American Bar Association, National Bar Association, Illinois State Bar Association, and Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism. His work has earned national recognition, including the National Bar Association’s “40 Under 40: Nation’s Best Advocate” and Humanitarian Awards, as well as several honors from the Cook County Bar Association. He frequently speaks on issues of equity, professional responsibility, and the evolving role of civil rights in the legal profession.
2025: J.T. Wilson III
J.T. Wilson III (JD '02)
Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.Wednesday, January 22, 2025
J.T. Wilson III (JD '02) is a diverse lead trial attorney with extensive experience in crisis management, whistleblower cases, biometric information privacy compliance and litigation, class actions, and labor and employment law. He manages internal investigations, arbitrations and trials before administrative agencies and in federal and state courts nationwide. His work addresses a wide range of workforce-related issues, including single, multiple, class and collective plaintiff lawsuits.
Wilson is deeply committed to professional and civic communities. He routinely invests in colleagues, mentees and causes to foster equitable and inclusive environments, driving holistic progress while reducing inefficiencies and waste.
2024: Justice Bertina Lampkin
Justice Bertina Lampkin
Illinois Appellate CourtTuesday, February 13, 2024
Justice Bertina Lampkin has served on the Illinois Appellate Court for almost 15 years. During her time on the bench, she has been a presiding justice, chair of the Executive Committee for the Appellate Court, and a member of five different Illinois Supreme Court committees, serving as chair of three of them. She currently serves on the Appellate Lawyers Association Rules Committee and as chair of the Appellate Court Administrative Committee, where she oversees the Illinois Supreme Court’s Volunteer Pro Bono Program for Criminal Appeals. She also was elected to serve as a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Office of the State Appellate Defender.
Prior to her appellate court appointment, Justice Lampkin served as a Cook County circuit court and associate judge, including as supervising judge of the Domestic Violence Courts and the Criminal Division. Before starting her judicial career, she was a City of Chicago assistant corporation counsel and a Cook County assistant state’s attorney.
Justice Lampkin has taught judges in various aspects of the law for 24 years, including death penalty litigation, proper handling of guilty pleas, jury selection and appellate practice. She has won numerous awards including the Cook County Bar Association’s Judicial Award, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office C.F. Stradford Award, the National Black Prosecutors Award, the DePaul College of Law Distinguished Service to the Profession Award, and the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois’ Mary Heftel Hooton Award for Service to the Profession.
For more than 40 years, Justice Lampkin has worked for diversity, equity and inclusion of African Americans and other minorities in the legal profession. She is a mentor to many and an inspiration to all.
- Welcome: Jennifer Rosato Perea, Dean
- Introduction: Neena Burns, President, Black Law Student Association
- Remarks: Manoj Mate, Faculty Director, and Nathan Fleming, Fellow, Racial Justice Initiative
2023: Audra Wilson
Audra Wilson
CEO, Shriver Center on Poverty LawWednesday, January 18, 2023
Audra Wilson has been a champion for racial and economic justice for more than 20 years as a public interest lawyer and teacher, policy shaper, community mobilizer, and experienced executive manager. Throughout her career, Wilson has focused on the voices and experiences of communities of color and communities most impacted by injustice.
Remarks:
- Manoj Mate, Professor of Law & Faculty Director, DePaul College of Law Racial Justice Initiative
- Nathan Bennett-Fleming, Racial Justice Fellow, DePaul College of Law Racial Justice Initiative
2022: Professor Richard Rothstein
Professor Richard Rothstein
Research Associate, Economic Policy Institute; Fellow, Thurgood Marshall Institute, NAACP Legal Defense Fund; Fellow, Haas Institute, University of California-BerkeleyWednesday, January 19, 2022
In his book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein argues with exacting precision and fascinating insight how segregation in America — the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife — is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state and federal level.
Rothstein has spent years documenting the evidence that government not merely ignored discriminatory practices in the residential sphere, but promoted them. The impact has been devastating for generations of African-Americans who were denied the right to live where they wanted to live, and raise and school their children where they thought best.
While the Fair Housing Act in 1968 provided modest enforcement to prevent future discrimination, it did nothing to reverse or undo a century's worth of state-sanctioned violations of the Bill of Rights, particularly the Thirteenth Amendment which banned treating former slaves as second-class citizens. So, the structural conditions established by 20th century federal policy endure to this day.
At every step of the way, Rothstein demonstrates, the government and our courts upheld racist policies to maintain the separation of whites and blacks. Leading to the powder keg which has defined Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston and Chicago. The Color Of Law is not a tale of Red versus Blue states. It is sadly the story of America in all of its municipalities, large and small, liberal and reactionary.
2021: Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton (JD ‘92)
Keynote Speaker: Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton (JD '92)
January 19, 2021
Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton is the 48th person and the first African American to serve in this role. Her entire career has focused on bringing people together, building consensus, and solving problems. She started her own consulting firm focused on alternative dispute resolution and served as a mediator, arbitrator and administrative law judge for several government agencies. Lieutenant Governor Stratton previously served as Director of the Center for Public Safety and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Executive Director of the Cook County Justice Advisory Council, and as a Deputy Hearing Commissioner for the City of Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection, all with a focus on improving public safety and building stronger communities.
As a lifelong advocate for youth and creating safe spaces for our young people, Lieutenant Governor Stratton is a restorative justice practitioner and trained peace circle keeper. She was also a founding board member of the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center and served on the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Protective Association.