Experts available to discuss grand jury decision, aftermath in Ferguson shooting
LAWRENCE — Three University of Kansas professors are available to discuss the legal and historical aspects to events in Ferguson, Missouri, surrounding the grand jury's decision Monday to not indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.
The aftermath of the shooting led to protests, looting and vandalism in the St. Louis suburb, and state and federal authorities as well as civil rights groups were watching the grand jury decision closely.
Corey Rayburn Yung, a criminal law professor at the School of Law, can offer expertise about the case as reported by the media, the unusual grand jury procedure being used, and shootings by police in general. His research focuses on criminal law, sex crimes and judicial decision-making. His scholarship has been cited by several federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Yung is regularly consulted by the media and has been quoted in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, among other outlets.
To schedule an interview with Yung, contact Mindie Paget at mpaget@ku.edu or 785-864-9205.
Clarence Lang, associate professor of African and African-American studies and American studies, has researched black urban communities in the 20th century Midwest. He published the 2009 book "Grassroots at the Gateway: Class Politics and Black Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, 1936-1975," and he is an expert on the city's Civil Rights Era. Lang can speak to St. Louis' history of intentional housing segregation, including a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibited restrictive housing covenants barring people of certain races from occupying property. Historically, Ferguson was a predominantly white, inner-ring suburb. Today, it is 67 percent black, and a quarter of the city's population lives below the poverty level.
Randal Maurice Jelks, professor of African and African-American studies and American studies, researches black cultural studies and civil rights history. He studies social movements of the 20th century, including the U.S. civil rights movement, and has written an award-winning book "Benjamin Elijah Mays: Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography." Mays was a mentor of Martin Luther King Jr.
To schedule an interview with Lang or Jelks, contact George Diepenbrock, KU News Service, at 785-864-8853 or gdiepenbrock@ku.edu.