Elaine Brown to deliver 2008 Thurgood Marshall lecture

Each year, a preeminent leader in the African-American community  delivers the Thurgood Marshall Lecture and Dinner at UCLA on Law and  Human Rights. On Thursday, April 17, Elaine Brown, former Black Panther  leader and an advocate for radical reform of the criminal justice system  will deliver the 2008 lecture.
The event, which benefits the Ralph  J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, will begin with a  reception at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and a program at 7 p.m.
The  evenings program will honor the contributions of former Supreme Court  Justice Thurgood Marshall, whose record for civil rights and advocacy is  inextricably linked to the African-American struggle for social and  economic justice. Past lecturers have included civil rights activist  Julian Bond, law professor and author Lani Guinier, and late UCLA  alumnus and noted attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.
Throughout the last  four decades, Brown has organized significant efforts aimed at  progressive change in the United States. Brown, who grew up in the  ghettos of north Philadelphia, was an active member of the Black Panther  Party from 1968 to 1978.
Brown helped establish the organizations  Free Legal Aid Program, wrote and performed songs, including The Black  Panther National Anthem, and edited the partys official newspaper.
In  1971, she became the first female member of the Black Panthers Party  Central Committee and served as the partys chairperson from 1974 to  1977.
Brown is the author of several books including A Taste of  Power: A Black Womens Story (Pantheon, 1993), which is her memoir and  has been optioned by HBO for a six-part series titled The Black  Panthers.
Much of Browns recent work has focused on a radical  reform of the criminal justice system. The Atlanta resident has authored  and edited several books about the plight of prisoners and the  injustices of the criminal justice system. In 1998, she co-founded  Atlanta-based Mothers Advocating Juvenile Justice, a grassroots  organization with over 300 members who advocate on behalf of teenagers  who were prosecuted as adults.
Brown also is the founder of Fields  of Flowers, Inc., an educational non-profit corporation that serves poor  black children.
Since its creation in 1969, the Ralph J. Bunche  Center for African American Studies at UCLA has been ranked among the  nations top academic research centers in African American Studies. The  center conducts and sponsors multidisciplinary research on the  African-American experience, supports the bachelor and masters degree  programs in Afro- American Studies, facilitates scholarly activities for  faculty and students, administers undergraduate scholarship programs  for students majoring in Afro-American Studies, and sponsors  community-service programming.
For more information on the awards  dinner, call (310) 825-4023.