Civil rights center set to get new chief

With death comes new life, even in law.

The 2013 death of revered lawyer and civil rights activist Julius L. Chambers left the UNC School of Law without a director for its Center for Civil Rights.

Ted Shaw, who is currently a law professor at Columbia University, will take over the position this July after more than 20 years of experience advocating and litigating civil rights cases with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

“(Shaw) brings sort of a lifetime of civil rights advocacy and experience to the center, which is a wonderful opportunity for us,” said Mark Dorosin, managing attorney for the Center of Civil Rights. “Ted brings the lineage of the most important civil rights work that’s been done in the country.”

Shaw said he is excited for the opportunity during what he calls an important time for civil rights in the United States, and in North Carolina specifically.

“My belief is that sooner or later — maybe a little bit later as compared to sooner — the business community that’s so important to North Carolina, as it is to any community, is going to wake up and say, ‘You know what? We like low taxes, and we thought we liked a lot of the agenda that the legislature adopted, but this is not good for North Carolina,’” he said.

“It’s important that those who represent people who are economically and otherwise disadvantaged continue to advocate for that, even through this period of time.”

Shaw said he is excited for the opportunity to work in the Tar Heel state — especially for the Center for Civil Rights.

“It has an excellent staff and they are litigating cases, issuing reports, pursuing policy issues and so forth,” Shaw said.“This is not a matter of me coming in and turning the ship around, it’s a question of me coming in and giving further leadership and support for the work that the staff is doing.”

Though he will be working in Chapel Hill, Dean of the UNC School of Law Jack Boger said Shaw will be a resource for all of North Carolina.

“He will certainly be a person widely consulted by the groups already here on the ground working on issues of racial justice and fairness and opportunity, and it’s hard to predict exactly how those relationships will unfold — but he’s a national resource,” Boger said.

“(The Center for Civil Rights) is now often called to the table where major conversations are being had about future civil rights policy and advocacy.”

In addition to litigating civil rights cases and managing the center’s finances, Shaw will become a distinguished professor at the UNC School of Law. This balance between academia and activism is exactly what the center looked for in its candidates, said Dorosin.

“In this era of specialization there’s less and less people who have both. We’re not purely an academic center — we represent client communities all over the state and finding that balance was what was so hard,” he said.

Shaw said he hopes to live up to and be inspired by his predecessor, Julius Chambers.

“When you work with greatness, you’re right on top of it,” he said.

“It’s like being at an art museum and looking at a great work of art — if you’re standing right on top of it, you can’t really see it, can’t appreciate it. It takes time and perspective to really understand historical events and even to get perspective on great people. I knew Julius as a man, as an individual, and when you put together his story, he was great — nothing short of great.”

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