MSR editor Jasmine McBride profiles seven Black law graduates from the University of Minnesota, Mitchell Hamline School of Law and the University of St. Thomas School of Law, each carrying a personal story of why they chose the law and what they are bringing into a profession that has historically excluded people who look like them.
At a time when the rights of marginalized communities are under sustained attack, from voting rights rollbacks to DEI restrictions to immigration enforcement, a new class of Black lawyers is entering the legal profession with something to say and someone to fight for.
Seven graduates from the University of Minnesota, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and the University of St. Thomas School of Law recently crossed the stage into a profession that has historically excluded people who look like them. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder sat down with each of them to ask a simple question: what brought you here, and what are you bringing with you? Their answers tell the story of a community that refuses to be left without representation.
For many of these graduates, the road to law school began not in a classroom but in a living room, a courtroom gallery, or behind prison walls. Ebra Brock of Mitchell Hamline carries perhaps the most striking origin story. At eight years old, she met her father for the first time through the walls of Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary. That visit planted a seed. Last year, before her first day of law school, Brock advocated for her father’s release after 22 years of incarceration. She will continue as a summer law clerk at the First Judicial District Public Defender’s Office…