Panel 2—Media Rights: The Role of the Media as a Check on the GovernmentModerator: Lisa Crooms-Robinson Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Howard University School of Law

Johnita P. Due is vice president and assistant general counsel of CNN. Due joined CNN in 2003 and is based in the network’s headquarters in Atlanta. From 2005 until 2013 Due also served as CNN’s chief diversity advisor. She is currently co-chair of the business resource group Black Pro-fessionals at Turner. As vice president and assistant general counsel, Due provides strategic guid-ance and counsel to television and digital clients on media law relating to content production and distribution. She serves as a key resource for digital product teams in advising on evolving techno-logical platforms, including iReport, CNN’s first ever user-generated content website, and CNN-go, a next-generation digital product which gives users unprecedented control over their TV news consumption. Additionally, Due manages CNN’s multinational rights and clearances department. She also oversees access matters for CNN, with successful lawsuits against the State of Florida for a copy of its suspected felons list prior to the 2004 election which impacted the state’s election policy, against the federal government to gain access to Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts which contributed to CNN’s Peabody award-winning coverage, and against local agencies relating to the 2013 death of Kendrick Johnson, which led to the reopening of the investigation into the Georgia teen’s death.

David L. Hudson Jr. is a First Amendment expert and law professor who serves as First Amend-ment ombudsman for the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center. He contributes research and commentary, provides analysis and information to news media. He is an author, co-author or co-editor of more than 40 books, including Let The Students Speak: A History of the Fight for Free Expres-sion in American Schools (Beacon Press, 2011), The Encyclopedia of the First Amendment (CQ Press, 2008) (one of three co-editors), The Rehnquist Court: Understanding Its Impact and Legacy (Praeger, 2006), and The Handy Supreme Court Answer Book (Visible Ink Press, 2008). He has written several books devoted to student-speech issues and others areas of student rights. He writes regularly for the ABA Journal and the American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases. He has served as a senior law clerk at the Tennessee Supreme Court, and teaches First Amendment and Professional Responsibility classes at Vanderbilt University School of Law and various classes at the Nashville School of Law. David is also a licensed boxing judge and has judged a dozen world championship fights, including the WBC world heavyweight championship in July 2016.

Paul Monteiro currently serves as Chief of Staff to President Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA, 17th president of Howard University. President Obama designated Monteiro as the Acting Director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Relations Service (CRS) in 2016. Authorized by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and expanded by the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Pre-vention Act of 2009, CRS serves as federal mediators in areas of local community conflict rooted in race, religion, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, color, or national origin. CRS plays an important role in DOJ’s ongoing effort to strengthen relationships between local commu-nities and law enforcement. Paul previously served as director of AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) from 2014-2015. Organized in 1965, VISTA was designed as the domestic counterpart to the Peace Corps and today more than 7,800 members serve at approximately 3,000 sites around the nation. From 2009 to 2013, he was an advisor in the White House Office of Public Engagement and led outreach to faith-based organizations, Arab-American communities, and an-ti-poverty groups. He played an active role in several Administration domestic initiatives.

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Johnita P. DueVice President & Assistant General

Counsel, CNN

David L. Hudson Jr.First Amendment ExpertVanderbilt Law School

D. Paul MonteiroChief of Staff to the

PresidentHoward University

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About Wiley A. Branton

From There When We Needed Him

iley Branton agreed to represent a group of Little Rock, Arkansas, parents and their children to force the Little Rock public schools to integrate, he had no idea that the case would change his life. He was thirty-two years old, married, with five children. Branton had become a lawyer in 1952, and conducted a solo law practice in his hometown of

Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with his wife as his secretary. He had begun to build a small reputation for successfully handling local civil rights matters. He also continued to run the taxicab business started by his fatherand grandfather in 1915. His future as a prominent lawyer in his smalltown community seemed settled.

But Branton also was a black man in a southern state that practiced segregation. While he could live a comfortable life, segregationist laws and attitudes would limit him. All his life, he had observed, and been subject to, discrimination based solely on his color. He knew that such comfort as he enjoyed was not the lot of the majority of black men and women. A student of his country’s history, he was proud to be an American, yet he recognized that America was not living up to its ideals. He joined hundreds of other black men and women who worked to change discriminatory practices in this country through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and other organizations. The law would be his vehicle, but his best results were not always achieved in a courtroom.

Branton’s involvement with Cooper v. Aaron, the formal name for the Little Rock integration case, began almost by chance following the United States Supreme Court’s 1954 decision declaring public school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. When Arkansas governor Orval Faubus defied the Court’s decision and forced President Eisenhower to send federal troops to protect nine black high school students, allowing them to attend Central High School in Little Rock, the world’s attention focused on that city. Cooper v. Aaron became the first contest of the new law. Branton was catapulted onto the national scene and wound up becoming a national figure in the civil rights movement. He devoted the rest of his life to fighting discrimination, taking a number of jobs in which his efforts improved access to civil rights for thousands of people.

Wiley Branton died on December 15, 1988, at the age of sixty-five. Eleven hundred mourners attended a funeral service at the Washington (D.C.) National Cathedral on Monday, December 19. Those present reflected Branton’s life in civil rights. They included Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; Jack Greenberg, General Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; District of Columbia mayor Marion Barry; and a host of other prominent civil rights activists. The eulogy was delivered by his protege and close friend, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who praised Branton both as a devoted lawyer and as a “friend who would go the second mile, lend a helping hand, share and care and come when needed.” A more “intimate “viewing” had taken place at his church, the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, the previous evening.

Branton’s body was flown back to Arkansas, where a ceremony was held at the family’s place of worship, St. Paul’s Baptist Church, in Pine Bluff A memorial service was held at his alma mater, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (formerly AM&N College).Almost two hundred people attended that program and Arkansas governor Bill Clinton delivered the closing remarks. Wiley Branton was buried near his parents and grandparents in the family plot at Bellwood Cemetery in Pine Bluff Within the year following his death, many individuals and organizations honored Branton. The National Bar Association and the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law each established annual symposia named for him. His law firm, Sidley & Austin, began an annual lunch celebrating his life and work that has become a symposium at Howard University’s School of Law, where Branton served as dean. On August 31, 2003, an eleven-mile section of Interstate 530 near Pine Bluff was named in his honor, the first time Arkansas has honored a black citizen in this manner. Other, less grand, organizations also created memorials to him around the country.

Branton’s life should not be forgotten. It demonstrates the positive effect that one man can have on a society and serves as an example and encouragement for those who follow.

Excerpted from the intro to There When We Needed Him by Judith Kilpatrick, ©2007.

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1. The Branton children back at home following Dean Branton’s Howard investiture. (L to R) Wiley Jr., Wylene, Toni, Richard, Debra and Beverly. 2. Wiley Branton in the U.S. Army. 3. Wiley and Lucille in the early years of their courtship in Hot Springs, Arkansas. 4. Wiley and Lucille in their later years, circa 1987/1988. 5. The Branton family at home in Pine Bluff. (L to R) Wylene kneeling, Toni standing, Beverly in mother Lucille’s’ lap, Richard, Wiley Sr., and Wiley Jr. 6. Book jacket of There When We Needed Him. 7. Thanksgiving 1985 in Mexico for a big Branton family reunion hosted by Leo Branton, Wiley’s brother. (L to R) Wylene, Wiley Jr., Lucille, Debra, Wiley Sr., Richard, Toni, and Beverly.

The Legacy of Wiley A. Branton in Pictures

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1. Wiley Branton’s investiture as dean of Howard University School of Law. 2. Wiley Branton, Pine Bluff Attorney for the NAACP, on 6-23-58, entering the courtroom to plead with a federal judge for a stay of an order to postpone integration at Central High School. 3. The Wiley A. Branton Highway sign. 4. Wiley Branton with William Coleman and Thurgood Marshall. 5. Army photo of Wiley Branton. 6. The burned cross on the Wiley and Branton families’ cemetery plot in Pine Bluff.

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1. Dean Branton watches as Thurgood Marshall addresses Howard law students. 2. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Wiley Branton. 3. Wiley Branton with Louis Rothchild Mehlinger (center) and Howard Law School Dean J. Clay Smith. 4. Thurgood Marshall and Branton at a press conference. 5. Wiley Branton’s daughter Beverly Branton Lamberson with Mrs. Thurgood Marshall and Howard law students in 2014 at the Eleventh Annual Branton Symposium.

Photos supplied by the Branton family and used with their permission. Additional photos courtesy of the School of Law.

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AcknowledgmentsThe Wiley A. Branton/Howard Law Journal Symposium Committee would like to thank all participants and guests

who attended today’s program. We offer our special thanks to the many people who made the Symposium possible:

Danielle Holley-Walker | Dean, Howard University School of LawLisa A. Crooms-Robinson | Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Howard University School of Law

Reginald McGahee | Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs, Howard University School of LawAnn-Marie Waterman | Assistant Dean for Administration & Operations, Howard University School of Law

Neil O. Dennis | Assistant Dean of Career ServicesBeverly Branton Lamberson and the Family of Wiley A. Branton

Mrs. Cecilia MarshallMichael A. Nemeroff | Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

Jeffrey T. Green | Partner, Sidley Austin LLPJasmine Ball | Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Ziyad Motala | Professor of Law, Howard University School of LawJustin Hansford | Associate Professor of Law and Director of the

Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center, Howard University School of LawDanielle Hayes | Executive Notes & Comments Editor, Howard Law Journal

Shanice D. Hinckson | Managing Editor, Howard Law JournalElijah D. Jenkins | Executive Publications Editor, Howard Law Journal

Members of the Howard Law JournalDwayne Carmichael | Facilities Management, Howard University School of Law

Shalonda Colbert | Special Assistant to the Dean, Howard University School of LawBlair Diggs | Webmaster Howard University School of Law

Tiffany Harris | Administrative Coordinator, Administration & Operations, Howard University School of LawFrank King | Director of Information Technology, Howard University School of Law

LaShawn D. Reeder | Administrative Assistant, Office of the Dean, Howard University School of LawJerome Roberson | Director of Facilities Management, Howard University School of Law

Faculty, Staff, and Students of Howard University School of Law

Wiley A. Branton/Howard Law Journal Symposium Committee, 2017-2018

Matthew Wellington Burns | Editor-in-Chief, Co-ChairTanya C. Freeman | Executive Solicitations & Submissions Editor, Co-Chair

Olamide E. Fadahunsi | Senior Solicitations & Submissions EditorDana R. McCann | Senior Solicitations & Submissions Editor

Alexis Q. Marion | Member and Brantee Associate Fleur G. Oké | Member and Brantee Associate

Jacqueline C. Young | Director of Publications & External CommunicationsVictoria Capatosto | Reference Librarian and Research Instructor, Law Library

Andrew I. Gavil | Professor of LawSarah VanWye | Assistant Professor of Lawyering Skills

Wiley A. Branton/Howard Law Journal Symposium Topics

UNFINISHED WORK OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964:

Shaping An Agenda for the Next 40 YearsNovember 12, 2004

THE VALUE OF THE VOTE: The 1965 Voting Rights Act and Beyond

October 28, 2005

WHAT IS BLACK? Perspectives on Coalition Building in the Modern Civil Rights Movement

October 20, 2006

KATRINA AND THE RULE OF LAW IN THE TIME OF CRISIS

October 26, 2007

THURGOOD MARSHALL: His Life, His Work, His Legacy

October 24, 2008

FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO THE WHITE HOUSE:

The Past and Future of Black Lawyers in America

October 23, 2009

COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES: Who Really Pays the Price for Criminal Justice?

October 29, 2010

HEALTH CARE REFORM AND VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES:

Can We Afford It? Can We Afford to Live Without It?

November 4, 2011

PROTEST & POLARIZATION: Law and Debate in America 2012

November 1, 2012

CIVIL RIGHTS AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE: Confronting Old Conflicts and

New ChallengesOctober 24, 2013

RIGHTS VS. CONTROL: America’s Perennial Debate on Guns

November 6, 2014

REFORMING THE CRIMINAL inJUSTICE SYSTEM

October 29, 2015

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S LEGACY IN THE COURTS:

Executive Power and the Federal JudiciaryOctober 14, 2016

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: A New Age of First Amendment Rights?

October 13, 2017

Sponsored by Howard University School of Law, Sidley Austin LLP, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP

Howard University School of Law2900 Van Ness Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008

www.law.howard.edu.