The Legal and Writing Adventures of Susie Ruth Powell
Date of Event
10-9-2020
Description
Event Description
Susie Ruth Powell, retired managing attorney and litigator with NC Legal Services, retired assistant professor of law at North Carolina Central University and CWRU Law alumni, class of ’73, will discuss her career in poverty law along with some important cases she has litigated. She has applied her teachings at Case throughout her profession which has led to many victories for disenfranchised people. Professor Powell served as a writer on the Emmy award-winning documentary, “The Loving Story” and as a story developer for "The Rape of Recy Taylor.” She will be this year’s recipient of The Centennial Medal Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a CWRU Law graduate.
Speaker Biography
Susie Ruth Powell is a retired legal aid attorney and assistant professor at North Carolina Central University School of Law. She received her Juris Doctor from Case Western Reserve University in 1973 in the first wave of women law students and was one of two black women to graduate in that class. Some career highlights include suing the United States on behalf of poor people living in substandard federal housing in the case Garden Valley Tenants Association v. James Lynn and The United States of America, practicing poverty law in North Carolina by grappling with issues of housing, domestic violence, food stamps, child care and tort defenses, and teaching contracts, trial practice and legal writing at North Carolina Central University School of Law and teaching at the legal clinic at NCCU. Powell has an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Bennett College for Women, an Honorary Doctor of Laws from North Carolina Central University, and served as a writer on the Emmy Award-winning documentary, “The Loving Story,” which earned Historians' top prize, among a number of prizes. She also worked on the story development for “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” her second documentary film.
Subject Headings
Susie Ruth Powell, poverty law, The Loving Story, The Garden Valley Tenants Association v. James Lynn and The United States of America, housing, domestic violence, Recy Taylor
Location
CWRU Law Virtual Event
Document Type
Video
Recommended Citation
Powell, Susie Ruth, "The Legal and Writing Adventures of Susie Ruth Powell" (2020). Conferences and Symposia. 39.
https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/law_videos_general/39