Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality

6PM Wednesday, April 10, 2024 | Speed Art Museum

The Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality was established by the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law in 2022 as an annual lecture series and tribute to the life of the Louisville woman who was killed in a police shooting in 2020. At the lecture, the Brandeis School of Law will also recognize the 2024 recipient of the Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award, Louisville attorney J. Michael Brown, and the law student recipients of the Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship.

The Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship was established in 2022 through a generous donation from artist Amy Sherald. The recipients must apply and show a dedication to social justice work in the legal field.

The Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award, named in honor of the groundbreaking Kentucky state representative, is presented to individuals who make a lasting impact and contribution to the Louisville community.

Learn more about artist Amy Sherald

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About Damon Hewitt, 2024 Keynote Speaker

Damon Hewitt is a long-time civil rights lawyer, social justice strategist, philanthropist, manager and coalition-builder who was named Lawyers’ Committee president/executive director in 2021. Prior to joining the Lawyers’ Committee, Hewitt served as inaugural executive director of the Executives’ Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. He previously served as Senior Advisor at the Open Society Foundations where he coordinated funding efforts responding to the uprising in Ferguson, Missouri.

Before entering philanthropy, Hewitt worked for over a decade as an attorney at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund where he was lead counsel on litigation and policy matters and supervised teams of lawyers and non-lawyers. He led pioneering efforts addressing the School to Prison Pipeline and coordinated litigation and advocacy efforts following Hurricane Katrina. Hewitt also served as Executive Director of the New York State Task Force on Police-on-Police Shootings, an entity analyzing police practices following the deaths of off-duty African American and Latino police officers who were shot by fellow officers after being mistaken for “criminal” suspects.

Hewitt is co‐author of a book, The School‐to‐Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform, and has published numerous articles on racial justice, school discipline policy and progressive education reform. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Louisiana State University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.