Margaret Burnham: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners, 8 April | Event in Newton | AllEvents

Margaret Burnham: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners

Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College

Highlights

Wed, 08 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm

1.5 hours

Gasson Hall

Free Tickets Available

Advertisement

Date & Location

Wed, 08 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm to 08:30 pm (GMT-04:00)

Gasson Hall

140 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, United States

Save location for easier access

Only get lost while having fun, not on the road!

About the event

Margaret Burnham: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners
Margaret Burnham, legal scholar, civil rights advocate, and former judge , joins the Lowell Humanities Series.

About this Event

Renowned legal scholar, civil rights advocate, and former judge Margaret A. Burnham is the founder of Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) and author of By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. Through CRRJ, Burnham has led teams of law students in investigating acts of racial violence in the Jim Crow era, including hundreds of unsolved murders of Black people among other historical failures of the criminal justice system. The project serves as a resource for scholars, policymakers and organizers involved in initiatives seeking justice for these crimes.

Burnham began her career at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In the 1970s, she represented civil rights and political activists, including Angela Davis. In 1977, she became the first African American woman to serve in the Massachusetts judiciary, when she joined the Boston Municipal Court bench as an associate justice. In 1993, South African president Nelson Mandela appointed Burnham to serve on an international human rights commission to investigate alleged human rights violations within the African National Congress, a precursor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

She was a former fellow of the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Studies and in 2016 was selected for the prestigious Carnegie Fellows Program. She was among four scholars from across the country appointed by President Biden to serve on the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, a national initiative charged with reviewing the records of murders and other acts of racially motivated violence that occurred between 1940 and 1979. Burnham is a University Distinguished Professor of Law at Northeastern University, where she has been on faculty since 2002.

Cosponsored by the Boston College PULSE Program for Service Learning and Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics.

All Lowell Humanities Series lectures are free and open to the public. Registration via Eventbrite is required for in-person attendance.

The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, Boston College's Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Provost's Office.


Also check out other Arts events in Newton, Literary Art events in Newton, Nonprofit events in Newton.

interested
Stay in the loop for updates and never miss a thing. Are you interested?
Yes
No

Ticket Info

Tickets for Margaret Burnham: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners can be booked here.

Ticket type Ticket price
General Admission Free
Advertisement

Nearby Hotels

Gasson Hall, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, United States
Register for Free
Ask AI if this event suits you

Host Details

Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College

Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College

Are you the host? Claim Event

Advertisement
Margaret Burnham: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners, 8 April | Event in Newton | AllEvents
Margaret Burnham: By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow's Legal Executioners
Wed, 08 Apr, 2026 at 07:00 pm
Free