Margaret Burnham
Margaret A. Burnham (born December 28, 1944)[1] is an American lawyer and academic who is a professor at the Northeastern University School of Law and the founder of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. She is a Senate-confirmed nominee to be a member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board.
Margaret Burnham | |
---|---|
Member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board | |
Designate | |
Assumed office TBA | |
Nominated by | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Position created |
Personal details | |
Born | Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. | December 28, 1944
Relations | Louis E. Burnham (father) Linda Burnham (sister) Charles Burnham (brother) |
Education | Tougaloo College (BA) University of Pennsylvania (LLB) |
Early life and education
Burnham was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Tougaloo College and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.[2]
Career
Burnham's legal practice included serving as an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.[1]
In 1970, Burnham worked with CPUSA lawyer John Abt to defend Angela Davis and later wrote the foreword to Abt's memoir.[3]
In 1977, she became the first African American woman Judge in Massachusetts, serving in as an Associate Justice of the Boston Municipal Court until 1982.[1]
In 2008, she was one of the lawyers in a landmark federal lawsuit against Franklin County, Mississippi for their law-enforcement agents' involvement in the 1964 Ku Klux Klan kidnapping, torture and killing of two 19-year-olds, Henry Dee and Charles Eddie Moore.[4]
On June 11, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Burnham to be a member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board.[5] The Senate's Homeland Security committee held hearings on Burnham's nomination on January 13, 2022. The committee favorably reported her nomination on February 2, 2022. Burnham was officially confirmed by the entire Senate via voice vote on February 17, 2022.[6]
Personal life
Burnham's father was Louis E. Burnham, an activist and journalist. Her sister, Linda Burnham, is also an activist and journalist. Her brother, Charles Burnham, is a violinist and composer. She is also related to Forbes Burnham, the second president of Guyana.[7]
References
- "The Honorable Margaret A. Burnham". The Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
- "Margaret Burnham's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
- Abt, John; Myerson, Michael (1993). Advocate and Activist: Memoirs of an American Communist Lawyer. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. pp. 78 (Amalgamated), 273 (Angela Davis). ISBN 9780252020308.
- "Faculty Directory: Margaret A. Burnham". Northeastern University School of Law. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
- "President Biden Announces Seven Key Nominations". The White House. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- "PN717 — Margaret A. Burnham — Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board 117th Congress (2021-2022)". US Congress. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- "Schomburg Library honors Burnham". People's World. 2002-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-07.