Nana Gyamfi

NANA GYAMFI is the President of the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL).

She is the Executive Director of Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the largest Black-led social justice organization representing the nearly 10 million Black immigrants, refugees, and families living in the U.S. She previously served as BAJI's Board Vice- Chair and Managing Director.

A Movement attorney for over 25 years, Nana is co-founder of Justice Warriors 4 Black Lives and Human Rights Advocacy, both dedicated to fighting for human rights and Black liberation. She has served as the Executive Director of Black Women's Forum, an organization co-founded by Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who serves as its President.

Nana is a former professor in the Pan-African Studies Department at California State University Los Angeles. She has repeated appearances in documentaries and other media, including Tales of the Grim Sleeper and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and she hosts her own weekly radio show ‘Conversations On the Way: The Asafo Edition”.

Lennox S. Hinds

LENNOX S. HINDS is a Professor Emeritus of Law and former Chair of the Administration of Justice Program, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

A graduate of The City College of New York and Rutgers Law School, he was awarded the law school’s J. Skelly Wright Award for contribution to civil rights. He was a Charles H. Revson Fellow, Center for Legal Education and Urban Policy, City College of New York 1979-1980.

In addition to his practice as a criminal defense and international human rights lawyer, he was Nelson Mandela’s US attorney and counsel in the US to the Government of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and (SWAPO) of Namibia.

He is the permanent Representative to the United Nations for the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.

Before joining Stevens, Hinds and White, PC, as its senior partner, with law offices in New York, New Jersey, Great Britain, and Johannesburg, Hinds served for many years as National Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers of the US and Canada. He has represented a number of politically unpopular clients, including Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), the New York 8 and victims of police brutality and other governmental lawlessness including COINTELPRO.

Hinds has traveled, written, and lectures extensively in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America on international human rights issues and on the impact of racism on the operation of the law particularly the criminal justice systems of the US.

He has published and taught about crimes against humanity under international law for more than two decades and has presented expert testimony on the Crimes Against Humanity of the Apartheid Regime before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Johannesburg, South Africa presided over by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

He is admitted to practice before the Unites States Supreme Court, the International Criminal Court for Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Court for Yugoslavia (ICTY), the Permanent International Criminal Court in The Hague and the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Bernard K. Freamon

BERNARD K. FREAMON is professor of law emeritus at Seton Hall Law School. He is also an adjunct professor of law at NYU School of Law and an affiliate faculty member at George Mason University.

At Seton Hall, professor Freamon taught a variety of courses, including evidence, prisoners' rights, post-conviction remedies, civil rights, and Islamic jurisprudence.

He is the founding director of Seton Hall's Center for Social Justice. In that capacity, he conducted litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States, lower federal courts, and various state courts, raising constitutional and state law issues having an impact on the well-being of the poor, the underrepresented, unpopular speakers, religious minorities, prisoners, lawyers, and criminal defendants.

Irving L. Joyner

IRVING L. JOYNER is a Professor of Law, North Carolina Central University School of Law

Irving Joyner is a legendary civil rights lawyer and law professor in North Carolina whose NAACP roots run deep. He is currently Professor of Law at North Carolina Central University School of Law.

During 1984 through 1992, Professor Joyner served as the Associate Dean at the Law School. He has written three editions of his book, Criminal Procedure in North Carolina, and regularly prepares annual supplements to that publication.

Professor Joyner provides pro bono legal counsel to several political, religious, and community organizations and to needy individuals in civil rights and criminal appeals cases. He serves on several State study commissions and agencies and in leadership roles with a variety of community groups and organizations.

He is a regular legal commentator for local, state and national media primarily in the areas of law, politics, civil rights and racial justice. Joyner also serves as the Legal Counsel and the Chairperson of the Legal Redress Committee of the North Carolina State Branches of the NAACP and is a member of the North Carolina Indigents Defense Commission.

Professor Joyner has been engaged in litigation in the federal courts to challenge voter suppression laws and challenges to the redistricting plans for state and congressional legislative districts.

Donald M. Temple

DONALD M. TEMPLE, "DT" as he is affectionately known, received his BA from Howard University in 1975, his Juris Doctorate in 1978 from the University of Santa Clara (where he served as the school's first African-American President of the Student Bar Association), and his LL M from Georgetown Law Center in 1981, with a concentration in international and constitutional law. DT also attended the Rene Cassin Human Rights Institute at the University of Strasburg, France in 1977. DT has practiced law since December 1978 when he began his legal career in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of General Counsel. After working in the US House of Representatives, Committee on the District of Columbia and a 1989 Congressional candidacy for the D.C. Delegate seat. DT started in the private practice of law. Located in downtown Washington, D.C., Mr. Temple’s work is concentrated primarily in the District of Columbia and Maryland federal courts, D.C. state courts, and various administrative entities, including civil trial and appellate litigation, administrative hearings, arbitrations, and mediations. His practice includes commercial and civil trial and appellate litigation in: civil fraud, contractual disputes, real estate transactions, D.C. Whistleblower Protection, foreclosures, labor disputes, reputational torts, conversion, Title VII and 42 USC Section 1981 race discrimination, human rights violations, Section 42 USC 1983 police cases, and other constitutional litigation. DT has successfully litigated against corporations and governments including, but not limited to, the United States, District of Columbia, City of Philadelphia, Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission, Eddie Bauer, American Eagle, ICMA-RC Pension Fund, Grand Hyatt Hotel, CVS, Hunton and Williams Law Firm, Invest Corporation, Bank of America, Citibank, and the District of Columbia Police Department. DT has obtained several favorable appellate decisions in the D.C. Court of Appeals and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, including Nanko Shipping v. Alcoa, Inc.; Stephanie Artis v. District of Columbia ; Vizion One v. District of Columbia; and Laura Jackson v. D.C. Most recently, he joined forces with Jenner and Block and attained a successful reversal of the D.C. Court of Appeals in the US Supreme Court. Most of his trial work is in the Maryland and DC federal courts. In November 2016, DT obtained a 1.7 million dollar jury verdict in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer. In that same court, he also successfully litigated a 42 USC Section 1981 action against the University of the District of Columbia, which resulted in the reinstatement and tenure of an African-American woman law professor Not long thereafter, DT attained a favorable judgment, again in the same court, in a trademark infringement and conversion case on behalf of the African Hebrew Israelite community.In 1997, DT coined the term “consumer racism” and obtained an unprecedented 1 million dollar verdict against Eddie Bauer in the U.S. District Court for Maryland. His litigation of police misconduct cases in Prince George’s County helped to end aggressive police dog biting incidents. DT is also the former Chairman of the D.C. Civilian Complaint Review Board, and former Chairman of the Congress Heights Community and Economic Development Center. His devotion to legal education is reflected in his 1979 founding of the Charles Hamilton Houston Law School Preparatory Institute (“CHH”), a self-sufficient, intense seven week law school program which prepares entering and prospective law students for the rigorous challenges of the first year of law study. CHH graduates have attended over 60 law schools; most of them are now lawyers, professors, and judges across the nation. DT is also the Founder of the D.C. Chapter Concerned Black Men and the Congressional Black Associates.DT’s professional accommodations and accolades are many and include the Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association’s 2018 Lawyer of the Year, the 2019 National Bar Association Heman Marion Sweatt Award, the National Bar Association’s Gertrude E. Rush Award, the Washington Bar Association’s Ollie Mae Cooper Award and the National Black Law Student Association’s Cora T. Walker Award. DT has also been inducted into both the District of Columbia Hall of Fame and the Washington Bar Association Hall of Fame.