Local School Named After Civil Rights Legend
Many members of the School of Law community successfully lobbied the City of Davis School Board to name a new elementary school after the civil rights legend Fred T. Korematsu, including Professors Anupam Chander, Madhavi Sunder, Bill Hing, Tom Joo, Alan Brownstein, Carlton Larson, and Al Lin. Law students Raymond Kim, MJ Mendoza and Dana Hori spoke before the Board. Professor Sunder, a naming committee member, forwarded Korematsu's name to the Davis School Board, noting the importance of recognizing Asian Americans in our community. Professor Marty West and alumni Keltie Jones '94 and James Provenza '80 are school board members who supported the naming.
Korematsu was the son of Japanese immigrants. After World War II broke out, Japanese immigrants living in the Pacific states were sent to internment camps. Korematsu refused to go. He was arrested and sent to a camp in Utah. He filed a lawsuit in 1942, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his conviction on the grounds of military necessity. In 1983, Korematsu appealed his conviction. Later that year a federal court overturned the conviction, stating that the government's case at the time had been based on false, misleading, and racially biased information. Congress finally passed legislation in 1988, apologizing for the Japanese American internments. Former President Clinton awarded Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, stating that "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls - Plessy, Brown, Parks. To that distinguished list today we add the name of Fred Korematsu."
UC Davis School of Law is committed to increasing diversity awareness in the community. This past year, the Law School was named one of the best law schools for minority enrollment. The faculty is over 25% minority and students are 35% minority. The percentage of Asian American faculty and students is one of the largest of any law school in the country. Asian/Pacific Islanders make up 21% of the student body.
Korematsu was the son of Japanese immigrants. After World War II broke out, Japanese immigrants living in the Pacific states were sent to internment camps. Korematsu refused to go. He was arrested and sent to a camp in Utah. He filed a lawsuit in 1942, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his conviction on the grounds of military necessity. In 1983, Korematsu appealed his conviction. Later that year a federal court overturned the conviction, stating that the government's case at the time had been based on false, misleading, and racially biased information. Congress finally passed legislation in 1988, apologizing for the Japanese American internments. Former President Clinton awarded Korematsu the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, stating that "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls - Plessy, Brown, Parks. To that distinguished list today we add the name of Fred Korematsu."
UC Davis School of Law is committed to increasing diversity awareness in the community. This past year, the Law School was named one of the best law schools for minority enrollment. The faculty is over 25% minority and students are 35% minority. The percentage of Asian American faculty and students is one of the largest of any law school in the country. Asian/Pacific Islanders make up 21% of the student body.