Bethune-Cookman University, located in Daytona Beach, is hosting a Virgil Hawkins Symposium and Lecture Series on Nov. 19 to help kick off the launch of its Center for Law and Social Justice.
Gunster attorney Earnest DeLoach will be serving as a panel member of minority lawyers and judges speaking about their professional experiences.
Judge Hubert L. Grimes, the first black judge on the 7th circuit who retired last year after 25 years, is the director of the center. The panels will run from 10:20 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with a break for lunch in between.
The morning panel will be held in the Performing Arts Center and the afternoon in the Civic Engagement Center’s graduate seminar room.
Virgil Hawkins, an alumnus of Bethune-Cookman University, is known for his nearly decade long legal battle in attempting to gain admittance to the University of Florida law school, where he was denied solely on the basis of his race. Hawkins’ actions eventually led to the desegregation of higher education at UF and though he never was able to attend UF, he received his law degree anyway from New England Law School.
Earnest DeLoach, Jr., a native of Daytona Beach, is an attorney at Gunster’s Orlando office who is a member of the commercial and construction ligation practice group.
