This webinar will explore the theory of transitional justice and application to Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to address the legacy of lynchings in Maryland. The panel will discuss how lawyers and the legal system allowed lynchings to occur, and how the State of Maryland and specific localities are using Truth and Reconciliation Commissions to expose the truth about lynching and create opportunities for community healing and justice.

Dr. Charles L. Chavis, Jr. is Director of African & African American Studies, founding Director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, & Race, at The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, and Assistant Professor of History and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. He is the author of the forthcoming book, The Silent Shore: The Lynching of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State (Johns Hopkins University Press; January, 2022) which investigates and reconstructs the full story of one of the last lynchings in Maryland. Dr. Chavis is National Co-Chair for the United States Truth Racial Healing and Transformation Movement and Vice Chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. He also serves on PBS's Exploring Hate Advisory Committee.

Matiangai Sirleaf is the Nathan Patz Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. Professor Sirleaf is editing “Race & National Security” (forthcoming Oxford University Press) in partnership with Just Security and OUP Academic, building off a “Racing National Security” symposium. She has published widely in leading law reviews on issues such as The Truth About Truth Commissions and Beyond Truth and Justice in Transitional Justice. Professor Sirleaf has received a number of prestigious grants, awards, fellowships, and other honors. These include the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award (2019), New York University Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award (2014), and a Fulbright Fellowship (2004). Professor Sirleaf is a graduate of Yale Law School, the University of Ghana Legon Center for International Affairs, and New York University College of Arts and Sciences.

Moderator:

Deborah Thompson Eisenberg is the Piper & Marbury Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. She serves as Faculty Director of the law school’s nationally-ranked Center for Dispute Resolution and dispute resolution program. She writes and teaches in the areas of conflict resolution, mediation, restorative justice, and equal pay. She received her law degree from Yale Law School, and graduated Valedictorian at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

This program is sponsored by the Center for Dispute Resolution and the International & Comparative Law Program at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.

Truth and Reconciliation and Anti-Lynching Commissions