“The Civil Rights Movement: 50 Years Later” is the topic of the 23rd annual Thurgood Marshall Symposium, hosted by at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law.

The March 2 event begins at 11 a.m. in the Great Hall of Memory Leake Robinson Hall on Samford’s campus. The free event is open to the public, and one hour of continuing legal education (CLE) credit is being offered. Registration is not required.

Hon. Carlton W. Reeves, federal judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, will lead the discussion. Reeves has clerked for Hon. Reuben Anderson, the first African-American justice to serve on the Mississippi Supreme Court; worked at the Jackson, Mississippi, office of Phelps Dunbar; served as assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Mississippi; and founded the law firm Piggott Reeves Johnson. He has also served on the board of the ACLU of Mississippi, the Mississippi Center for Justice and the Magnolia Bar Association. President Barack Obama nominated Judge Reeves for the Southern District of Mississippi on April 28, 2010, and the U.S. Senate confirmed his appointment on Dec. 19, 2010.

The Thurgood Marshall Symposium is hosted by the Black Law Students Association at Cumberland School of Law. The purpose of the symposium is to provide students, attorneys and the public critical information about legal issues affecting minorities. The late Thurgood Marshall was the first African-American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Polly Manuel is marketing and communication coordinator for Cumberland School of Law.