Angel Joseph
Staff Writer
Denying people an opportunity for higher education is the modern equivalent of slavery, said federal judge Vanessa Gilmore as she addressed UH students on Wednesday in Krost Hall.
Gilmore presented a history of law and racism in America and offered what she felt to be the solutions to prevent it in the future.
History reveals that in the U.S. law has traditionally been used to legitimize racism. Rooted in the law were the concepts of inferiority, the idea that whites are superior to blacks; property, which defined slaves as their masters' property and disregarded their humanity; and partiality, denying blacks access to education, she said.
Gilmore highlighted important cases that helped change the law.
She mentioned the Dred Scott decision, which dealt with the inclusion of Negroes in the constitutional definition of citizens.
This case led to the passage of the 13th Amendment, which guarantees that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist; and the 14th Amendment, which prohibits the deprivation of life, liberty or property without due process and equal protection.
The 13th and 14th Amendments theoretically eliminated the concept of inferiority, but the concept of denying access to education took its place.
Historically, blacks were denied education through slavery.
Today minorities continue to face challenges in acquiring higher education because of disparate resources, she said.
There are "cumulative advantages and cumulative disadvantages," Gilmore added.
Another case discussed was Plessy vs. Ferguson, which dealt with the right of a Negro to ride in a stage coach.
"This case legitimized the worse case of racial separation," Gilmore said.
Brown vs. The Board of Education and Hopwood vs. The State of Texas were also cited.
Gilmore encouraged students to take advantage of opportunities to help others.
"As privileged students of higher education," she said, "we [students] have an obligation to help others who are not fortunate.
"History teaches us [that] our role and our responsibility is to open doors to educational opportunity ... and provide access to education for somebody else's children."
Gilmore is the first UH Law School graduate to become a federal judge.
Among the 745 Article 3 federal judges in America, 18 are African-American women.
On the 5th U.S. Circuit, which consists of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, Gilmore is the only African-American female Article 3 federal judge.
She was licensed by the state bar of Texas in 1982, which equipped her for a 12-year career at a Houston law firm currently known as Vickery, Kilbride, Gilmore and Vickery.
She was appointed to the Texas Department of Commerce Policy Board by then-Gov. Ann Richards. She was also the first African-American ever to serve on this board.
President Bill Clinton nominated her for federal judgeship in March of 1994.
Gilmore was sworn in on June 10, 1994, at the University of Houston, making her the youngest sitting federal judge in the nation at that time.