Civil Rights & Access to Justice

The civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s culminated in legal protections that guard against discrimination based on race and guarantees equal protection under the law. Many in Hawaiʻi have dedicated their lives to ensuring that people have access to those protections when their civil rights are at stake, such as in the areas of housing, employment, and health. Join us for a conversation about the evolution of civil rights protections in Hawaiʻi, and current efforts underway to ensure that people have access to the processes and resources needed to foster racial justice, community empowerment, and lasting structural change.
Introduction by Chief Justice Mark E. Recktenwald of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court. Panel presentation by Judge Joseph Cardoza, retired Chief Judge of the Second Circuit and current chair of the Hawaiʻi Access to Justice Commission (moderator); Bill Hoshijo, Executive Director at the Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission; Daphne Barbee-Wooten, President of the African American Lawyers Association; Dina Shek, Legal Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children in Hawaiʻi; Rebecca Leibowitz, staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi.