Memories of a Former Law Professor
By W. F. Twyman, Jr., Class of 1986, Harvard Law School
As a former law professor, I look back upon my time in the Academy with fondness and a sense of relief. I lacked the courage to write, I mean truly write, while part of the academic priesthood. I cared too much about what people thought. Would the professors of color embrace my independence or turn their backs on me as a race traitor? Should I hold my tongue as minority scholars moved further and further into delusions of dogma and slogan words? And, would I feel fulfilled if I had to hold my tongue and watch my back?
What I really loved about being a law professor was research and writing. I loved to lose myself in the library stacks while researching law review articles no one would read. For me, there was a joy of discovery, the pure pursuit of intellectual curiosity. I can indulge in these creative pursuits as a writer, however, without the peer pressure of conformity as a law professor.
As a former law professor, I can write what strikes my fancy. I can fearlessly challenge dogma about redlining and not worry about whispers in the law school hallways. I can write in a plain spoken way about how “historically marginalized” slogan words grate on my nerves. And I can feel the fulfillment of increasing human knowledge.
My former colleagues and friends in the academy are now robotic for the most part. They have mouthed dogma and slogan words for so long that real life expressed in writing shocks their conscience. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. We have lost many minds to dogma and slogan words at law schools. At best, a handful of non-conforming black law professors teach in law schools today.
I am not going to lie to you. Over the past week or two, I have felt boredom with race. I miss my nightly fill of science fiction in black and white. What keeps me going is a fear that law professors, writers and intellectuals no longer care about reality which is positive and uplifting. I don’t want the light of real, non-conforming stories, experiences and perspective to be forgotten by the young. Those who fervently believe Blackness is Oppression, Nothing Else Matters will not have the curiosity to save accounts of black neighborhoods free of redlining in the 1930s, the felt duty to cherish the memories of black congressmen during Reconstruction, the profound humanity of pioneer black lawyers from 1844 to 1875.
And so I find my motivation to write another day free of dogma and slogan words.
Good evening!
Professor Charles W. Kingfield, Jr. — Harvard Law School Academic Year Begins