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BLS Library Digital Book Displays: Black History Month (Feb. 2025)

Black History Month 2025: Print Sources Highlighting BLS Alumni in BLS Library's First Floor Display

Please view these sources about noted BLS alumni in BLS Library's first floor display:

Please also see Oral History Interview with David Norman Dinkins, 2014 in the Oral History Archives, Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University ("Interviewed by Megan French-Marcelin on July 9, July 25, July 30, and August 12, 2014"). On p. 12 and p. 26 of the interview transcript, Mayor Dinkins discussed why he chose to attend Brooklyn Law School.

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Black History Month 2025: Highlighting Lives and Work of Lawyers and Judges - Explore BLS Library's Books

Digital Sources Available Through Brooklyn Law School, Oral History Archives: Columbia Center for Oral History & Historical Society of the New York Courts

Brooklyn Federal Judge Sterling Johnson Jr., 88, Remembered as Devoted Mentor, Trailblazing Black Prosecutor and Judge [Oct. 12, 2022 New York Law Journal article by Jane Wester available through BLS subscription source: Law.com]

Remote access to New York Law Journal through Law.com requires implementation of the BLS proxy instructions.

Senior U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. of the Eastern District of New York graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1966.

Civil Rights and Social Justice [collection]

In BLS Library's SARA catalog record, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - (HEIN). Remote use requires implementation of the BLS proxy instructions.

Excerpt from collection description: Includes "hearings and committee prints, legislative histories on landmark legislation, CRS and GAO reports, briefs from major Supreme Court cases, and publications from the Commission on Civil Rights."

Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 [collection]

In BLS Library's SARA catalog record, click: ACCESS ONLINE VERSION - (GALE). Remote use requires implementation of the BLS proxy instructions.

Excerpt from collection's description: "Throughout the twentieth century Black Americans of all political persuasions were subject to federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution."

Subcollections:

  • FBI File on A. Philip Randolph
  • FBI File on Adam Clayton Powell
  • FBI File on Elijah Muhammed
  • FBI File on Malcolm X
  • FBI File on Muslim Mosque, Inc.
  • FBI File on Paul Robeson
  • FBI File on Roy Wilkins
  • FBI File on Thurgood Marshall
  • FBI File on W. E. B. Du Bois
  • FBI File on the Atlanta Child Murders (ATKID)
  • FBI File on the Black Panther Party, North Carolina
  • FBI File on the Committee for Public Justice
  • FBI File on the Highlander Folk School
  • FBI File on the Ku Klux Klan Murder of Viola Liuzzo
  • FBI File on the Moorish Science Temple of America
  • FBI File on the Murder of Lemuel Penn
  • FBI File on the NAACP
  • FBI File on the National Negro Congress
  • FBI File on the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU)
  • FBI File on the Reverend Jesse Jackson
  • FBI File on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
  • FBI File: MIBURN (Mississippi Burning)
  • FBI Investigation File on Communist Infiltration of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
  • FBI Investigation File on Marcus Garvey

Historical Society of the New York Courts: [Justice] William C. Thompson

Excerpt from Justice Thompson's biographical entry provided by Historical Society of the New York Courts: "Justice William C. Thompson was educated at Franklin K. Lane High School and Brooklyn College before earning his law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1954. He was admitted to the bar in 1955 and began practicing with a specialization in criminal law. From 1965 until 1968 he served as a member of the New York State Senate, in that time working with Senator Robert F. Kennedy to establish the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and chairing the Joint Legislative Committee on Child Care Needs, sponsoring over 25 bills that would be signed into law. From 1969 until 1973, he served on the New York City Council. Thompson joined the bench when he was elected as a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1974. He was designated to the Appellate Term in November of that year, and in 1978 he was appointed Assistant Administrative Judge for Brooklyn and Staten Island. Justice Thompson was designated by Governor Hugh Carey to the Appellate Division, Second Department in 1980."

Hon. Jean Bell ’83: Staying on Track [alumni profile by Kim Catley in Brooklyn Law Notes (Fall 2021)]

See also: Jeuness Track Club at https://www.jeunesstrackclub.com/ + Sisters on Track - A Netflix Original Documentary (2021) at https://www.sistersontrack.com/