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''Suzette M. Malveaux ''
American civil rights lawyer
Meet Colorado’s Legal Power Couple On The Cutting Edge Of Civil Rights And Education
cpr.org/2021/03/18/meet-the-colorado-legal-power-couple-on-the-cutting-edge-of-civil-rights-and-social-justice
There are two law schools in Colorado and each has just one full professor who is a Black woman. And those two women are a couple. A power couple, you could say.
Professor Suzette Malveaux is a civil rights attorney who teaches at CU Boulder and directs the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional law. Her name has recently come up as a potential nominee for a federal judgeship.
'' Professor Catherine Smith teaches at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where she also used to serve as the Associate Dean for Diversity Equity, and Inclusion.''
Smith and Malveaux laugh when they say they “didn’t get the memo” on the historical rivalry between their schools.
“We don't take the comparison or the competition too seriously,” Malveaux said. “We try to support each other and our institutions as much as possible.”
“We both love Colorado and we love the students that come to both law schools,” Smith added. “So we very much see it as a win-win.”
Collectively Malveaux and Smith have broad legal expertise from employment and LGBTQ rights to the constitutional rights of children. They have both testified and written about legislation — from police accountability to hair discrimination.
The experience of being the only Black women who are full professors at their law schools bonds with them, as well.
“When you are the only one, you can feel that acutely. You want to feel like there are folks in the building who understand your journey, and the perspective and experience that you have,” Malveaux said.
Malveaux’s parents grew up in the segregated South.
“My dad was racially profiled when I was really little,” she said. “And you don't forget those kinds of things when you are feeling threatened and scared.”
The encounter happened on one of her family’s annual road trips from Maryland to Louisiana, to visit her grandparents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzette_M._Malveaux
Malveaux was born in Lansing, Michigan, into a family of Creole descent,[2] and identifies as African-American.
Her father, the late Floyd J. Malveaux, was the dean of the College of Medicine at Howard University, executive director of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, and a founder of Howard University's National Human Genome Center.[3]
Her mother, the late Myrna Ruiz Malveaux, was an early childhood educator.[4]
Her twin sister is CNN Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.[5]