The First Black Woman to Lead the Harvard Law Review

The first edition of the Harvard Law Review was published in 1887. It has the largest circulation of any law journal in the world.

In 1990 Barack Obama was elected president of the Harvard Law Review. He was the first African American to hold the position. Of the first 130 presidents of the prestigious journal not one was a Black woman.

But that barrier has now been broken. ImeIme Umana was elected as president of the Harvard Law Review from a field of 12 candidates. Eight candidates were members of underrepresented groups and eight were women.

Michael Zuckerman, the outgoing president of the Harvard Law Review, stated that “ImeIme is one of the most brilliant, thoughtful, and dedicated people I’ve ever met, and the Law Review is in phenomenally good hand. Like many others around campus, I’ve been blown away by ImeIme since she was an undergraduate in Harvard’s Lowell House, and it has been thrilling to watch the Law Review’s membership recognize so heartily what a special human being she is. I am excited for all of the amazing work that she will do for our institution in the year ahead.”

A native of State College, Pennsylvania, Umana graduated from Harvard University in 2014 with a dual major of government and African American studies. She will be interning with the public defenders office in Washington, D.C., summer. Upon graduation from Harvard Law School in 2018, Umana will become a clerk for Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

Howard University Achieves R1 Status While North Carolina A&T State University Falls Short

Howard University has received the prestigious R1 Carnegie Classification, making the institution eligible for major federal grants. NCA&T University narrowly missed the achievement, averaging just three less annual doctoral graduates than the classification's requirements.

Three Black Scholars Selected for Endowed Faculty Positions

The new endowed professors are Eddie Chambers at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stefanie Dunning at the University of Rochester in New York, and Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire at Harvard University.

North Carolina Central University Establishes Early Assurance Program With the UNC School of Pharmacy

Students at North Carolina Central University now have the opportunity to apply to an early assurance program for the doctor of pharmacy degree program at the University of North Carolina's Eshelman School of Pharmacy, the top-ranked pharmacy school in the United States.

Five Black Administrators Taking on New Roles at HBCUs

The appointments are Anthony Neal at Florida A&M University, Tara Cunningham at Dillard University in New Orleans, David Camps at North Carolina A&T State University, Michael Meyers at Paine College in Georgia, and Sidney Brown at Tuskegee University in Alabama.

Featured Jobs