Touro Law To Host Documentary Screening and Q&A

Brothers of the Black List Viewing on Wednesday, September 3, 2014 at 6 pm

September 2, 2014

Touro Law Dean Patricia Salkin is pleased to announce a screening of the new documentary Brothers of the Black List will take place at Touro Law on Wednesday, September 3 at 6:00 pm in the auditorium. The event is free of charge and open to the public. Following the documentary, a panel discussion will be held with an open question and answer session for audience members. Panel members include filmmaker Sean Gallagher, lawyer for the plaintiffs Scott Fein, and Kirk Allen, one of the former students featured in the film. The panel will be moderated by Touro Law Bruce K. Gould Distinguished Professor of Law Richard Klein. The event is being sponsored by the Black Law Students Association, the Criminal Law Society, the Long Island Black Bar Association (AMISTAD) and the New York Civil Liberties Union. 

In Brothers of the Black List, director Sean Gallagher tracks a story of racism that became the longest litigated civil rights case in American history. In September 1992, an elderly woman in a small town in upstate New York reports an attempted rape by a young black man who cut his hand during the altercation. While looking for suspects, police contact officials at SUNY Oneonta, a nearby college, and a school administrator reacts by handing over a list of names and residences of 125 black male students. For the next several days, those students are tracked down and interrogated by various police departments under a presumption of guilty until proven innocent. The now grown students and their school counselor, Edward “Bo” Whaley, recount the disturbing events that the college and police department tried sweeping under the rug for many years thereafter. An emotional story of social justice, this unsettling documentary is also a cautionary tale of equal rights gone wrong that is relevant today more than ever.

“This is an important film documenting one of the longest litigated civil rights cases in the country,” said Dean Patricia Salkin. “I am confident that the screening will prompt productive dialogue among our law students and community members in attendance. I’m looking forward to watching the movie and the question and answer session that will follow.”

To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Cassie Zilavy at (631) 761-7066.

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Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center’s 185,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility is located adjacent to both a state and a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York.  Touro Law’s proximity to the courthouses, coupled with the innovative new Portals to Practice curriculum provide all students with immersive, hands-on learning opportunities in diverse fields of legal practice. Touro Law, which has a student body of approximately 650 and an alumni base of nearly 6,000, offers full- and part-time J.D. programs, several dual degree programs and graduate law programs for US and foreign law graduates. Touro Law Center is part of the Touro College system.

About the Touro College and University System 
Touro is a system of non-profit institutions of higher and professional education. Touro College was chartered in 1970 primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American and global community. Approximately 19,000 students are currently enrolled in its various schools and divisions. Touro College has branch campuses, locations and instructional sites in the New York area, as well as branch campuses and programs in Berlin, Jerusalem, Moscow, Paris and Florida. New York Medical College, Touro University California and its Nevada branch campus, as well as  Touro University Worldwide and its Touro College Los Angeles division are separately accredited institutions within the Touro College and University System. For further information on Touro College, please go to: http://www.touro.edu/media/.

For more info contact:
Patti Desrochers
Director of Communications
pattid@tourolaw.edu
(631) 761-7062

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