1. Randall LeRoy Kennedy was born on September 10,1954 and is an American legal scholar.
21 Facts About Randall Kennedy
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Randall Kennedy is the Michael R Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University and his research focuses on the intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American life.
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Randall Kennedy specializes in contracts, freedom of expression, race relations law, civil rights legislation, and the Supreme Court.
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Randall LeRoy Kennedy was born on September 10,1954, in Columbia, South Carolina, the middle child of Henry Kennedy Sr.
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Randall Kennedy has said that tales of racial oppression and racial resistance were staples of conversation in his household.
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Randall Kennedy then studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1977 to 1979 and at Yale Law School, where he received a JD in 1982.
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Randall Kennedy served as an editor for the Yale Law Journal.
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Randall Kennedy was admitted to the Washington, DC bar in 1983.
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Randall Kennedy is a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of both the American Philosophical Association and the American Philosophical Society.
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In 1984, Randall Kennedy joined the faculty at Harvard Law School, teaching courses on race, law, and freedom of expression.
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Randall Kennedy first came to prominence as a legal-academic scholar when he began addressing affirmative action.
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Randall Kennedy likewise argues that the need to protect black communities from crime has often been neglected.
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Randall Kennedy is known as being unafraid to tackle socially difficult issues, such as racism.
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Randall Kennedy has written for academic and popular journals, published several books, and served on the editorial boards of the magazines American Prospect and The Nation.
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Randall Kennedy has written extensively on interracial marriages and adoptions, and on the relationship between race and crime.
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Randall Kennedy's views have been controversial even among other black intellectuals.
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In March 2021, Randall Kennedy participated in a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared US on the issue of slavery reparations, taking the position that he is "not an enemy of reparations, but has deep concerns about it".
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Randall Kennedy said his principal objections were the waste of important time and energy on a "futile movement", administrative difficulties associated with reparations, that they poorly target those who are presently in need, and that reparations will likely have unintended consequences.
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Randall Kennedy served as a trustee of Princeton University from 1994 to 1998 and from 2005 to 2015.
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Randall Kennedy serves on the Board of Directors at The National Coalition Against Censorship.
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In May 2023, Randall Kennedy gave a long-form interview on the Lex Fridman podcast entitled "The N-Word - History of Race, Law, Politics, and Power".