One Town / One Book                  Mock Trial

On Tuesday March 7th: A mock trial was conducted of the 1849 Sarah C. Roberts desegregation case  which formed the basis of Brown v the Board  of Education.  Richard Fulton, UMass Professor and Dean of Students at the Boston Latin School provided background and primary source documents to the participants who were otherwise free to role play actual characters in this legal drama.

      Source Documents

• Excerpts from the argument by Charles Sumner, "Equality before the Law: Unconstitutionality of Separate   Colored Schools in Massachusetts," delivered to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in the case of Sarah C. Roberts v. The City of Boston, 1849
• Ruling of Justice Lemuel Shaw in the case Sarah C. Roberts v. City of Boston, 1850

Related Program: Tuesday,  April 11th: "Killing  Mocking Birds With Sledgehammers: What Scout would see in today's justice system".   Presentation & discussion conducted by Prof. Lisa Thurau-Gray, Suffolk Law,   7:00pm in the Community Room.   No registration is required.       

 ONE TOWN/ONE BOOK