Image via NLG: Haywood Burns, second from right, with client Angela Davis (center), and fellow NLG defense attorney Margaret Burham (far left) during 1972 trial.
June 15, 2020 marks what would have been the 80th birthday of Haywood Burns, CUNY School of Law’s Dean from 1987-1994.
Haywood was the first African-American Dean of a New York law school when he led CUNY School of Law in gaining its accreditation and ensuring the survival of its progressive commitment to public interest law. We share this part of his legacy knowing we still have so far to go before we will move away from what can, in fact, be painful celebrations of the “firsts” or “onlys” in fields requiring more anti-racism and anti-oppression work. Pioneers like Haywood should be celebrated for breaking barriers and systems and institutions should be called upon to ensure they don’t stand alone. As Haywood’s friend and colleague Robert Van Lierop shared with the New York Times, “There’s this tendency to define Black people of exceptional ability as black leaders,” he said. “But the Black community in this country has often provided national leadership on many issues. Haywood was one who continued in that tradition.”
An excellent teacher, Haywood mentored thousands of students, fostering their entry to legal practice. Also an excellent lawyer, he was one of the founders of the National Conference of Black Lawyers and became its first director in 1968; his work aimed to decentralize the power of the more traditional National Bar Association.
On this birthday, the call to keep doing the work, and doing it better, is loud and it is clear.
The W. Haywood Burns Institute shares this tribute video in his honor
Haywood’s generosity of spirit was unbounded. His talents, passions, and zest for life were his signature: husband; father; motorcyclist; basketball player and Knicks fan; dancer; and rock ‘n roll enthusiast, who treated himself to a pair of blue suede shoes on his 50th birthday.
As David Gonzalez wrote in his New York Times column, Haywood’s “career cut across racial and ethnic lines, uniting politicians and persecutors, eager young attorneys and prosecutors, and grizzled civil rights veterans, the famous and the forgotten.”
To quote Samantha Mellerson of the W. Haywood Burns Institute, “Isn’t it fitting that Haywood’s birthday comes at a moment of national uprising and collective action – giving us the perfect opportunity to pause, honor and acknowledge those who chartered this course long before any one of us?”
Happy birthday, Haywood!