“We're not free until we’re all free.”

 —Opal Lee, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” 

Dear Friends, 

Today, we observe the national holiday of Juneteenth, commemorating the date of June 19, 1865, on which enslaved Black people in Texas were finally notified of the end of slavery, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. 

As our law school community celebrates and honors Juneteenth, let us reflect on the powerful message of Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., who came to campus in January as the inaugural speaker for our interdisciplinary Black Justice Studies Collaborative, thanks to the leadership and support of Professor Margaret Russell, Dr. Harry Nii Koney Odamtten, inaugural Director of the Black Justice Studies Collaborative, our SBA Co-president Cari Hall, and our university partners. 

Invoking the struggles and the legacies of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ella Baker and others, Dr. Glaude reminded us that justice is a long and sometimes lonely spiritual journey. In his aptly titled book, We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For (2024), he inspires all of us to keep driving forward: “The answer to the troubles in this country rests, as it always has, with the willingness of everyday people to fight for democracy.” 

On Juneteenth, each one of us is called not simply to commemorate the end of slavery, but to work together to embrace the promise of freedom, protect our democracy, and eradicate the long shadow of racism cast on our legal systems and on our everyday human interactions.

We particularly acknowledge that legal institutions, including law schools, have histories intertwined with overt and implicit bias, exclusion, marginalization, dehumanization, inequities, and harm. Ours is no exception. 

Yet, along with Dr. Glaude, I pray that we can all find hope in the power of truth telling, reflection, accountability, atonement, action, redemption, and reconciliation. As present and future lawyers, scholars, and leaders, we are uniquely qualified and duty-bound to challenge injustice, amplify marginalized voices, and transform our profession so that it reflects and serves all members of our community. 

Our Dedication to Inclusive Excellence

We have long been blessed by leaders in our law school community who have used their legal education to achieve great prominence in court, tech, business, and public service, and they have done the hard work of upholding the promise of this day. Juneteenth is an opportunity for us to honor our Black alumni, students, faculty, staff-educators, and partners who continue to lead, create, and inspire, reminding us not only of the work that remains but of the extraordinary power and promise already among us. 

On this day, therefore, let us call to mind the blessed memory of Nanette “Nan” Cannon J.D. ’94, who served for 29 years in our Office of Admissions until she passed away last December. The daughter of our alum, Cole Cannon J.D. ’72, Nan was responsible for admitting a generation of students who, as Nan foresaw, would emerge from Santa Clara Law to pursue careers of prominence and purpose, building a more fair future for all. 

Just a few weeks ago, another broadly diverse class of magnificent students whom Nan admitted crossed the stage at their commencement. They were greeted with heartfelt congratulations by our exceptional alumna, Judge Risë Pichon B.S. ’73, J.D. ’76. Judge Pichon, who serves on SCU’s Board of Trustees and our Law Advisory Board, has supported, mentored, and inspired innumerable Santa Clara Law students and graduates. 

For Judge Pichon, Juneteenth is an occasion to “lift up our law school as an exemplar of a caring and inclusive community in which alumni, faculty, administrators, and staff do their very best to ensure that all of our students feel heard, seen, supported, and empowered to reach their personal and professional aspirations—regardless of their life experiences, journey, or background.”

Our Commitment to Justice for All

Today, we also take the opportunity to honor and lift up the extraordinary graduates of the class of 2025 who are members of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA). 

Together with our alumni, faculty, and staff-educators, our students have championed the cause of justice in countless ways during their law school years, including: 

• organizing the Santa Clara Law Review Grants Pass Symposium, which addressed the criminalization of the unhoused; 
• collaborating with faculty to design and lead the California Racial Justice Act Conference and the Reimagining Reparations in California Conference; 
• hosting 18 African-American judges from the Association of African-American California Judicial Officers to speak at the law school, each offering practical advice and inspiration; 
• devoting thousands of hours in our clinics and centers to confronting systemic racial inequities in immigration, human trafficking, workers’ rights, housing, human rights, conflict resolution, starting new business ventures, and access to justice; 
• playing a vital role in the Northern California Innocence Project exoneration of Jose Olivares and Reginald Tanubagijo; 
• contributing to criminal justice reform by publishing groundbreaking research regarding eyewitness identification laws; 
• participating in the process of recruiting wonderful new faculty members and admitted students, thereby strengthening the inclusive excellence of our research and learning community; 
• serving as Panetta Democracy Fellows, advancing the cause of freedom and democracy around the world; 
• volunteering at Elevate Community Law Center to provide legal services in areas of domestic violence and family law; 
• organizing pipeline programs with local high schools; 
• advocating in myriad ways for health equity, with the support of faculty experts like Professor Sean Bland;
• spending their summers serving as immigration justice fellows; 
• helping to conduct the Center for Social Justice and Public Service’s annual Benefit for Justice Auction, featuring luminaries such as our alumna, Judge Shelyna V. Brown J.D. ’96; 
• raising money to support their fellow students in pursuing social justice and public service internships; 
• traveling with professors to San Quentin Rehabilitation Center to participate in community circles with incarcerated individuals as part of the law school's commitment to restorative justice and trauma responsive practices; 
• supporting the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center (KGACLC) 30th anniversary event at which Executive Director Deborah Moss-West J.D. ’94 was given the Marquette Jones Award and California Supreme Court Justice Kelli M. Evans shared wise counsel; 
• facilitating the Alexander Law Prize ceremonies honoring Keith Wattley J.D. '99, Founder and Executive Director of UnCommonLaw, and Shakti Belway, Executive Director of the National Center for Youth Law;
• presenting balanced forums for robust and respectful dialogue on international conflicts, guided by leading scholars like Professors Taylor Dalton; 
• collaborating with the Student Bar Association, Center for Social Justice and Public Service, KGACLC, and Family Action Network to launch and lead the Dean’s Democracy Series to promote core democratic values including equal justice under the rule of law, judicial independence, and due process; 
• orchestrating professional clothing and book drives;
• mentoring first year and incoming law students; 
• earning law school certificates, including being among the first cohort to earn the Sports Law Certificate, and the innovative Tech Edge J.D., under the mentoring of caring educators like Marian Williams and dedicated alumni like Landon Edmond J.D. ’98, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of Klaviyo, who serves on our Law Advisory Board;
• fostering career development and networking programs; and 
• partnering with our friends in the Berkeley Law Students of African Descent to honor Professor Margalynne Armstrong with the prestigious Berkeley Law Distinguished Alumni Award. 

Our Continuing Journey 

We are immensely grateful to our students and take justifiable pride in these remarkable accomplishments, among so many others. We also should take this moment to appreciate the concrete progress we all have made toward inclusive excellence, which is guided by Professor Thiadora Pina, our Senior Director of Inclusive Excellence, and well-documented in our Implementation Plan. 

But we must never stop being inspired by Santa Clara Law leaders like our extraordinary BLSA students as we strive to become a community where all students feel ever more seen, valued, and empowered to thrive in law school and beyond. 

Our work does not begin and end with Juneteenth. In the spirit of Opal Lee, we must continue to accompany each other on a journey that requires hard work, humility, and resilience in the face of inevitable setbacks. We are in it for the long haul, and we will remain steadfast in our commitment to listen deeply, invest boldly, and hold ourselves to the standard that true inclusive excellence demands. 

This is a spiritual, moral, and educational imperative rooted deeply in our Jesuit, Catholic religious beliefs. Our Jesuit law school is founded on the belief that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore must be treated with equal dignity and respect. The closer we come to establishing a truly diverse and inclusive law school community, the closer we come to reflecting the unity in the wondrous diversity of divine creation. As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops proclaimed: 

“Racism is not merely one sin among many; it is a radical evil that divides the human family and denies the new creation of a redeemed world. To struggle against it demands an equally radical transformation, in our own minds and hearts as well as in the structures of society.”

–National Conference of Catholic Bishops (currently known as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), Pastoral Letter on Racism, para. 37 (November 14, 1979), Brothers and Sisters to Us (accessed on June 19, 2025)

On this Juneteenth, let us both celebrate our collective accomplishments and vow to accompany each other in that personal and societal transformation. May we incarnate God’s love by joining together to achieve freedom, justice, and reconciliation for every member of our law school community and for the communities we are called to serve. 

With warm regards and great gratitude,

Santa Clara University School of Law