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.

For the American architect, see Margaret Burnham Geddes.
Margaret Burnham
Member of the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board
Incumbent
Assumed office
April 5, 2022
Nominated byJoe Biden
Preceded byPosition created
Personal details
Born (1944-12-28) December 28, 1944
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
RelationsLouis E. Burnham (father)
Linda Burnham (sister)
Charles Burnham (brother)
EducationTougaloo 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, her friend since childhood, and later wrote the foreword to Abt's memoir.[3]

In 1977, she became the first female African American Judge in Massachusetts, serving 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]

Burnham has authored and coauthored numerous articles;[7] and one book, By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners,[8] which received a positive review in The New York Times.[9] The book also won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History in 2022.[10]

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.[11]

See also

References
  1. "The Honorable Margaret A. Burnham". The Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
  2. "Margaret Burnham's Biography". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  3. 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.
  4. "Faculty Directory: Margaret A. Burnham". Northeastern University School of Law. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  5. "President Biden Announces Seven Key Nominations". The White House. 11 June 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  6. "PN717 — Margaret A. Burnham — Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board 117th Congress (2021-2022)". US Congress. 17 February 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  7. "au="Burnham, Margaret A."". WorldCat. OCLC. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  8. Burnham, Margaret A. (2022). By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393867855. OCLC 1344393958. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  9. Szalai, Jennifer (September 21, 2022). "Jim Crow's Forgotten History of Homicides". New York Times. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  10. "Los Angeles Times Book Prizes winners announced". Los Angeles Times. 2023-04-22. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
  11. "Schomburg Library honors Burnham". People's World. 2002-03-01. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
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