Theodore M. Shaw, the former director-counselor and president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, is the new director of the Center for Civil Rights at the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shaw is also the inaugural Julius Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law, an endowed professorship funded by a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Shaw has been serving as professor of professional practice in law at Columbia University in New York City.
Shaw is a graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia Law School. He began his career as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. He joined the Legal Defense Fund in 1982.
Professor Shaw said he was drawn to UNC and to the state of North Carolina. “What happens in North Carolina is important,” Shaw said. “North Carolina is a bellwether state when it comes to civil rights. There’s work to do here.”
Kudos to Dr. Shaw!–I enjoyed listening to you speak at the CDF/ETS Workshop on Young Black men (23 June). I look forward to working with the program to keep our young Black men in school.