Founder and Director
We sponsor dynamic interdisciplinary research, foster new pedagogies, and support remedial practice on the national and community level.
Launched in 2007 by University Distinguished Professor Margaret Burnham and now directed by Professors Burnham and Rose Zoltek-Jick, CRRJ supports the academic and teaching projects of scholars within and beyond Northeastern University, and the restorative justice efforts in communities to honor this history.
Law enforcement systems, particularly in the Deep South, failed to protect African American citizens from widespread racial terror from the end of the Civil War through the Civil Rights era.
Communities across the country are grappling with how to address the ongoing harms decades after these events. A major contributor to the initial wrongdoing, legal institutions must play a central role in this reparative work. CRRJ studies and promotes a range of policy approaches to enable this work, including criminal justice remedies, truth proceedings, and legislative initiatives.
Programs
Education
Classrooms, student investigative work with communities, fellowships, toolkits and curricula · Learn more»
CRRJ Burnham Nobles Archive
Repository of primary source documents, still images and interviews on cases of racially motivated homicides in 14 states, between 1930 and 1970 · Go to the Reading Room»
Restorative Justice
Efforts that speak to the descendants of racial terror, foster accountability, support reparations, honor the healing process, memorialize victims, and further racial reconciliation · Learn more»
Media
Our blog Headlight, a podcast series, and documentary films centering on the voices of families and communities affected by racial terror · See all»
Events
Scholarly panels and workshops, restorative justice events across the country: including conferences, commemorations, public apologies and historical marker unveilings · See all»
Staff
Project Archivist
Elizabeth Zitrin Justice Fellow
Legal Fellow
Christopher Bazen
Project Director, Oral History
Program Coordinator
Diane Harriford
Visiting Scholar, Vassar College, Sociology
Nancy Earsy
Editor
Vickie Rothbaum
Editor
Ann Baum
Editor
Emily Spieler
Senior Advisor
Advisors
Ifetayo Belle ‘10
Senior Staff Attorney
School Justice Project
Janeen Blake ’09
Sr. Director
Legal Counsel at Takeda
Tasmin Din ’10
Associate
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Tara Dunn ‘17
Litigator
Todd & Weld LLP
Hon. Geraldine Hines
Associate Justice (Ret.)
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Melvin Kelley, III
Professor of Law, Villanova University
Mary Nguyen ‘14
Assistant Attorney General
Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office
Melissa Nobles
Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Professor, Political Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rashida Richardson ’11
Visiting Scholar
Rutgers School of Law
Kaylie Simon ‘11
Deputy Public Defender
Contra Costa County, CA
Honorary Advisors
Rita L. Bender
Skellenger Bender P.S.
Fania Davis
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director,
Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth
David J. Dennis
Algebra Project
Robert P. Moses
Algebra Project
Charles Ogletree Jr.
Jesse Climenko Professor of Law (Ret.)
Harvard Law School
Ruby Sales
Spirithouse Project
Hollis Watkins
Southern Echo
Affiliates
Northeastern University
· · ·
Michael Beaudet
Professor of Journalism
Patricia Davis
Associate Professor of Communications Studies
Laurel Leff
Professor of Law
· · ·
Jack McDevitt
Professor of Practice in Criminology and Criminal Justice
· · ·
Dan Jackson
Director, NuLawLab
Jules Rochielle Sievert
Creative Director, Nulawlab and Stable Ground Boston
Deborah Ramirez
Professor of Law
Southern University Law Center
John Pierre
Vice Chancellor
Ada Goodley
Research Collaborators
Jeffrey Adler
Professor of History
University of FLorida
David Cunningham
PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY AT ST. LOUIS
Jay Driskell
VISITING SCHOLAR AND HISTORIAN
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITy
Shytierra Gaston
PROFESSOR OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE & CRIMINOLOGY
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Jennifer Llewellyn
PROFESSOR OF LAW
DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY
Monica Martinez
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN
Margaret M. Russell
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LAW
SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Geoff Ward
Professor of African and African-American Studies
Washington University at St. Louis
Nan Elizabeth Woodruff
Professor of History (Ret.)
Pennsylvania State University
Support
Our work is supported by individual donors and grants from The Carnegie Corporation, the Zitrin Foundation of San Francisco, The Ford Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Northeastern University. Individual donations support our students’ field work.
Contact Us
Northeastern University School of Law
Dockser Hall #120
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115