Justice 101: Examining Civil Rights and the Criminal Justice System
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
2:00 - 3:00pm EST
Click this link to view other Justice 101 videos.
We are joined by legal scholar Dorothy E. Roberts, J.D., professor at the University of Pennsylvania, for a compelling conversation on the history of civil rights movements within the justice system and the struggle for a fair and just criminal justice system in America. In this discussion, we'll examine how people impacted by the justice system have organized, advocated, and fought for their fundamental rights and human dignity.
Join us to explore key moments, movements, and figures highlighting the struggles for religious freedom, due process, and human dignity that have fundamentally shaped the fabric of our nation. This is a history of the American people fighting to challenge injustice and establish justice in the enduring quest for liberation.
Moderated by Dr. Kerry Sautner, President and CEO of Eastern State, this conversation will feature leading voices in prison history and carceral justice, who will challenge us to reconsider the meaning of civil rights and the history of the movement within the justice system.
About the Panelists:
Dr. Dorothy E. Roberts
George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights
Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law & Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies and Sociology and the Law School, where she is the inaugural Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights. She is also founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society.
Her path breaking work in law and public policy focuses on urgent social justice issues in reproductive justice, policing, family regulation, science, medicine, and bioethics. Her major books include Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Pantheon, 1997); Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare (Basic Books, 2001); Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century (The New Press, 2011); and Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families—and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World (Basic Books, 2022), as well as more than 100 articles and essays in books and journals, including “Race” in the 1619 Project book.
Her work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Harvard Program in Ethics & the Professions, Stanford Center for the Comparative Study of Race & Ethnicity, and the Fulbright Program. Recent recognitions of her work include elections to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, and National Academy of Medicine; Rutgers University Honorary Doctor of Laws degree; Society of Family Planning Lifetime Achievement Award; and American Psychiatric Association Solomon Carter Fuller Award.
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This program is part of Justice 101, a discussion series that dives into some of the most pressing issues in criminal justice today, through a historical lens and with a focus on civic education. Each program includes interactive elements, expert voices, and opportunities for community dialogue.
This program is part of A Time for Liberty: Our Shared History, Our Shared Future, a yearlong slate of free, inclusive programs exploring the evolving meanings of liberty and justice in America. A Time for Liberty is made possible with support from civic and cultural partners including the City of Philadelphia, America250PA, Campus250, the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial, the Philadelphia City Fund’s 2026 Milestone Grant Fund, supported by PECO, the National Trust Preservation Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program series, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
