MEDIA ADVISORY
June 16, 2014
State Bar of Texas to mark 50th anniversary of Civil Rights Act at Annual Meeting in Austin
AUSTIN — The 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will be a major theme of the State Bar of Texas 2014 Annual Meeting, which takes place June 26-27 at the Hilton Austin and Austin Convention Center. Scheduled highlights include:
• “Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act: A Remembrance,” featuring Lynda Johnson Robb, daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson; Mark Updegrove, historian and director of the LBJ Presidential Library; and attorney and author Talmage Boston (7:30-8:45 a.m. June 27, Hilton Austin Grand Ballroom FGH)
• New Republic legal affairs editor Jeffrey Rosen, who will speak on the legacy and meaning of Brown v. Board of Education on the occasion of its 60th anniversary and why it took the civil rights movement and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to fulfill the promise of Brown (noon-1:30 p.m. June 27, Austin Convention Center Ballroom D)
• “Justice Delayed, Not Justice Denied: The Prosecution of the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing Case,” featuring former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley of Baxley, Dillard, McKnight & James, and former U.S. attorney G. Douglas Jones of Jones & Hawley, P.C., both of Birmingham, Ala. (9-10:30 a.m. June 27, Austin Convention Center Room 15)
• “How the Civil Rights Act Has Impacted the World,” featuring University of Texas historian Jeremi Suri (10:45-11:45 a.m. June 27, Austin Convention Center Room 19A)
Other special events include:
• A speech on national security issues by Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, a former National Security Agency director and former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (noon-1:30 p.m. June 26, Austin Convention Center Ballroom D)
• The 2014 Open Government Seminar [PDF] (free and open to the public), featuring panel discussions on “big data,” privacy, and the right to know; and the dangers of not reading online agreements before clicking “I Agree.” Panelists include: Scott Braddock, The Quorum Report; Terri Burke, ACLU of Texas; Walter Huffman, Texas Tech University School of Law; Lise Olsen, Houston Chronicle; Johnny Sutton, The Ashcroft Group LLC; Connie Powell Nichols, Baylor Law School; Carl Settlemyer, Federal Trade Commission; and Jerry Suva, Baker Botts LLP. (9-11 a.m. June 27, Austin Convention Center Room 17A)
• A reenactment of oral arguments in Sweatt v. Painter (1950), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the University of Texas Law School violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause by refusing to admit an African-American student because of his race. The reenactment will feature former Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright as the advocate for Sweatt, Fort Worth attorney David Keltner as the advocate for Painter, and Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht as presiding judge. Other participants include former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillips, Supreme Court Justice Paul W. Green, and Judge Priscilla R. Owen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (2-4 p.m. June 27, Historic Supreme Court Courtroom, Texas Capitol)
• Trey Apffel of League City will be sworn in as president of the State Bar of Texas, and outgoing President Lisa M. Tatum of San Antonio will celebrate her successful year. Allan DuBois of San Antonio will become State Bar presidentelect. (noon June 27, Austin Convention Center Ballroom D)
Visit texasbar.com/annualmeeting to view the full schedule.
Media note: News media are welcome to attend sessions, but registration is required. Contact the State Bar Public Information Office at (800) 204-2222, ext. 1713, or at lbrown@texasbar.com to register. Upon arrival, sign in at the State Bar Information Booth at the Austin Convention Center and pick up a media pass for access. Space at the Historic Supreme Court Courtroom will be limited, so media covering the reenactment of Sweatt v. Painter will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to space
availability. The official Annual Meeting hashtag is #sbot14. All media questions concerning the Annual Meeting may be directed to Lowell Brown, State Bar of Texas communications division director, at (800) 204-2222, ext. 1713, (512) 427-1713, or lbrown@texasbar.com.
The State Bar of Texas is an administrative agency of the Supreme Court of Texas that provides educational programs for the legal profession and the public, administers the minimum continuing legal education program for attorneys, and manages the attorney discipline system.
