The Kennedy School of Government, the Law School, and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African-American Research have established projects to honor A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., chief judge emeritus of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, public service professor of jurisprudence at the Kennedy School of Government, and lecturer on law at the Law School, who died Dec. 14, 1998.

The programs are as follows:

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lectures in Law and Social Justice

During the 1999-2000 academic year, the Kennedy School, the Law School, and the Du Bois Institute will inaugurate three A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lectures in Law and Social Justice, to be published by Oxford University Press. The Higginbotham Lecturer will be chosen by a committee appointed by President Neil L. Rudenstine for the purpose of bringing to Harvard a distinguished jurist or scholar "who most exemplifies the principles of justice and equality that Leon held so dear," according to Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Kennedy School's Higginbotham Public Service Fellowship

A few years ago, as a way to further enhance its public service reach, the Kennedy School instituted the Public Service Fellowship program. This program, which has grown from three to 22 fellowships, provides full tuition plus a stipend to the most talented students who commit to entering a career in public service after graduation. Public Service Fellows are selected based on their leadership potential, creativity, and commitment to work in the public sector. Dean Joseph Nye announced, "We at the Kennedy School feel there is no more fitting tribute than to establish one of these public service fellowships in the name of A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., who so firmly committed his own extraordinary life to public service."

W.E.B. Du Bois Institute's A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Internship Program

The A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Internship program will support a selected number of sophomore or junior students at Harvard College who wish to work in public service projects during the summer. The internship program is designed to begin to fulfill the call made by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West in their book, The Future of the Race, in which they called for "Afro- American Studies departments in this country to institutionalize sophomore and junior year summer internships for public service and community development in cooperation with organizations such as the black church, the Children's Defense Fund, the National Urban League, the NAACP, PUSH, etc. so that we can begin to combat teenage pregnancies, black-on-black crime, and the spread of AIDS from drug abuse and unprotected sexual relations, and help counter the despair, nihilism, and hopelessness that so starkly afflict our communities. Working together with other scholars, politicians, and activists who have developed these programs, we can begin to close the economic gap that divides the black community in two."

This program is made possible by the generous support and leadership of Carl S. Sloane, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration. The Department of Afro-American Studies is the sponsor of this internship program.

Law School's A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lecture

The Law School has established the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lecture as part of the Saturday School Program, which will commence during the fall of1999. "The Higginbotham Lecture will honor Professor Higginbotham's work as judge, lawyer, and scholar, and will allow us to continue his legacy at Harvard Law School," said Dean Robert Clark. Saturday School is a lecturer program directed by Law School Professor Charles Ogletree.

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Endowment Fund

The A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Endowment Fund has been established with donations from Dean Nye of the Kennedy School, Dean Clark of the Law School, Harvard President Rudenstine, and the Du Bois Institute, according to Professor Gates, "for the purpose of funding the Higginbotham Internship Program and instituting in other ways the ideals for which Leon so ardently fought and which he cherished so dearly."