Education is key, DSS speaker Charles Ogletree says

As the oldest of six children raised in poverty in Merced, California, Charles J. Ogletree Jr. was the first in his family to finish high school and go to college. He almost didn’t make it to Stanford, though. He thought he had a flat tire en route, so he turned around and headed back home.

“When I got back to my house, my brothers and my sister had moved my bed out completely. I said, ‘What’s going on here?!’ and they said, ‘You’re the first to go from high school to college and we want you to succeed.’ I had no choice,” Ogletree recalled with a laugh Thursday night in Alumni Arena on the North Campus as part of the 29th annual Distinguished Speakers Series. Ogletree was also the 40th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration keynote speaker.

After obtaining his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford, then a law degree from Harvard, Ogletree established himself as an advocate for the underdog, working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for all people equally under the law. He’s earned acclaim — and, he acknowledges, criticism from some — for taking a hard look at complex legal issues, particularly with regard to racial injustice. He joined the Harvard Law School faculty just seven years after receiving his JD.

Education made it all possible. “To me, it is the key that turns things in the right direction. Educating every child makes an enormous amount of difference,” said Ogletree, the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law. He’s also the founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, named in honor of the lawyer who spearheaded the litigation in Brown v. Board of Education. Houston also mentored one of Ogletree’s legal role models, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Throughout his 45-minute talk, Ogletree weaved in examples of the importance of education. For him, it all started as a kid. He would venture to the local public library and check out stacks of books at a time, sneaking away to his room at night to read in bed, a flashlight illuminating the pages that ignited his intellect.

“I just read and read and read about the world. That made a huge difference in my life. I had a thirst for reading, and that’s what we have to inspire in our children,” he said.

That’s why, for many years now, Ogletree has provided college scholarships for underprivileged but determined students in each of the four high schools in Merced. He recalled how just last year one of his students at Harvard Law approached him and thanked him for giving him an Ogletree scholarship when he was a senior at a high school in Merced. “He said, ‘That is why I am at Harvard Law School now’ and boy that brought tears to my eyes,” Ogletree said.

He also discussed the disproportionate number of black men who are charged with crimes in the U.S. and how education plays a role in that. “That tells you something is wrong and we need to fix it. My goal has been focused on trying to make sure our people have the opportunity to get an education and make a big difference in this world,” he said.

Throughout his talk, Ogletree mentioned the people who’ve inspired him, including Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the current occupants of the White House. Ogletree taught both Barack and Michelle Obama at Harvard in the late 1980s. He recalled seeing Michelle Obama’s incredible talent back then. He’s asked her repeatedly about running for president. “Michelle Obama should be the president of the United States of America,” he said.

Ogletree closed his talk by adapting the lyrics from the gospel song, “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired”:

“I don’t feel no ways tired because I’ve come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. But I don’t believe He brought me this far just to leave me. And I don’t think that He’s brought you this far just to leave you.”

After his talk, Ogletree took part in a 40-minute Q&A moderated by Teresa Miller, vice provost for equity and inclusion, and Letitia Thomas of Cora P. Maloney College.

Miller asked him about the spate of unrest that has swept across college campuses around the country in the past year, including at UB — where a controversial student art project in which signs reading “White Only” and “Black Only” were posted in Clemens Hall by graduate art student Ashley Powell — and how campuses can balance free speech and inclusion.

“It’s a very difficult question. I’m in the minority of points of view among faculty because I believe it’s free speech,” he said. “We don’t like it, but it is the First Amendment right to say what you want to say,” he said. “That creates more dialogue, not less dialogue, so I think we need to have a conversation about it.”

Ogletree said it “hurts my soul” to see things like that happen, but it’s important to engage in a conversation about the reasons behind it. “I think what she did, while it may be punishable, it is a lesson for all of us to learn and all of us to respond to in a positive way,” he said.