Randall Kennedy

Randall LeRoy Kennedy serves as the Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1984, focusing on contracts, criminal law, and race relations in American legal institutions. Born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1954, Kennedy's academic journey includes degrees from Princeton University, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School. His early career was marked by prestigious clerkships with Judge J. Skelly Wright and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Kennedy has authored numerous influential works including "Race, Crime, and the Law" (1997 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award winner), "For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law," and "Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture." His scholarship examines complex intersections of racial conflict and legal institutions in American life, with particular focus on civil rights, freedom of expression, and Supreme Court jurisprudence. As a member of the American Law Institute, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Association, Kennedy has established himself as a leading voice on racial justice and legal reform. His work consistently challenges conventional wisdom while maintaining rigorous academic standards, earning him recognition as one of the nation's foremost experts on race and law.