When Tayo Belle ’10 approached Professor Margaret Burnham in the hallway during her first year at Northeastern Law, she was hoping for any opportunity to work with the renowned civil rights attorney. She never expected Burnham’s immediate response: “How do you feel about going to Mississippi?”
The path to that life-changing conversation began with a grandmother’s intuition. Before Belle even started law school, her grandmother — herself a civil rights activist — had read a profile about Professor Margaret Burnham in Oprah Magazine. True to form, she cut out the clipping and mailed it to her granddaughter with a note: “This is a woman I think you should try to somehow get to know.”
For Belle, whose family had been in Boston for generations after fleeing the Confederate South, Burnham’s question filled her with “utter dread and terror,” she said in a recent interview with the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ). But because it was Margaret Burnham asking, and because she had promised to work with her “in any way, shape, or form,” Belle said yes to what would become a career-defining experience.
The Beginning of Something Revolutionary
Belle’s 2008 summer in Jackson, Mississippi, working on the historic Dee-Moore case, predated the formal establishment of CRRJ as a clinic. The case involved a federal civil lawsuit filed in August 2008 against Franklin County, Mississippi, claiming that local law enforcement officials aided and abetted the KKK in the 1964 murders of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, two 19-year-old Black men who were kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by Klan members. As one of the very first students to work with Burnham in this capacity, Belle helped establish the template for the experiential learning that would become the clinic’s hallmark — including the practice of sending students to the locations where cases originated.
“I was so lucky and privileged to have [this experience] at the beginning of my legal career before my legal career even started,” Belle reflected.
I couldn’t have ever gotten the practical experience and true understanding of what it really means to be a dedicated civil rights attorney without it.”
In 2010, more than 40 years after their murders, Franklin County, Mississippi agreed to an undisclosed settlement in the civil suit with the Dee and Moore families.
Working as Burnham’s research assistant during the investigation phase, Belle spent her time digging through old courthouse libraries and accompanying Burnham on trips throughout the Mississippi Delta. But perhaps more importantly, she witnessed firsthand how a seasoned civil rights attorney operates.
Lessons in Lawyering and Life
Belle vividly recalls sitting with Burnham in the living rooms of families who had “long since believed that their day for justice had come and gone.” She watched as Burnham made these families feel comfortable “like she had known them their whole lives,” said Belle.
“She never overpromised people, which is a lesson that I learned early on from her,” Belle said. “She was always straightforward with people, very transparent about what she thought she could and couldn’t do. She would do everything that was humanly possible to bring their family justice.”
This approach to client relations became foundational to Belle’s own practice. Over her 15 years as an attorney, she has carried these lessons with her, applying them in every client interaction.
The impact of that transformative summer was immediately apparent. Belle’s passionate discussions of her CRRJ experience in job interviews helped her secure a fellowship with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights upon graduation, followed by a position with the ACLU.
Today, Belle serves as Deputy Director of the School Justice Project in Washington, D.C., a legal advocacy organization representing court-involved young people aged 17-22. In this role, she litigates in federal court and works on policy efforts, drawing direct connections between her early training with Burnham and her current work.
“It’s easy to make these connections,” Belle said, “and it’s so easy to see how… the National Guard being in the streets and being outside of schools here… looks so similar to America circa 1950s, 1960s.”
Her work focuses on the intersection of education and juvenile justice, particularly for students with disabilities — a specialization that grew from the foundational understanding of civil rights advocacy she gained through CRRJ.
The Lasting Impact
Belle’s experience illustrates the unique value of CRRJ’s approach to legal education. By working directly with clients and communities, students gain practical skills that simply cannot be learned in a classroom setting.
“Those things you really have to learn while out in the field,” Belle notes. “That’s really something that I still carry with me to this day.”
Her family still refers to that summer as “Tayo’s Freedom Summer,” a reference that captures both the historical significance of the work and its personal transformation power.
Belle’s mother, initially terrified to leave her daughter in Mississippi, now understands the profound impact of that experience.
As CRRJ’s work continues to evolve, Belle serves on the clinic’s advisory board, helping to maintain the student perspective, drawing on her experience in the field to guide the program’s direction.
A Living Legacy
Belle’s story demonstrates how CRRJ’s emphasis on experiential learning, community engagement, and rigorous advocacy training creates not just competent lawyers, but dedicated civil rights advocates equipped to tackle contemporary challenges with historical perspective.
“I want to be Margaret when I grow up,” Belle laughed. “We’re all very lucky to have gotten the chance to work with her… because she brings a breadth of experience to this work that you really don’t see anymore.”
From a nervous first-year student approaching her professor in the hallway to a seasoned civil rights attorney fighting for justice in the nation’s capital, Belle’s journey illustrates the transformative power of CRRJ’s approach to legal education, and the lasting impact of that first question: “How do you feel about going to Mississippi?”
Tayo Belle graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2010. She currently serves as Deputy Director of the School Justice Project in Washington, D.C. and sits on CRRJ’s advisory board.
Above feature photo: Thomas Moore (left) Henry Dee (center) Tayo Bell (right)
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