Redemption - USC Gould School of Law - University of Southern ...

Spring / Summer 2007MagazineFeature15USC Law has become the nation’s most diverse elite lawschool. Here’s how it happened — and why it matters.The colorful face ofUSC LawBy Karen Newell YoungWhen Joseph E. Porter III ‘71 arrived at USCLaw in 1968 wearing a Malcolm X T-shirt and a six-inchafro, he looked around and saw very few black men.He had no idea he would help change the course ofminority enrollment at USC Law, or that the law schoolhe chose would someday become one of the mostdiverse in the nation.By 1968, the country was shaken by years of anti-warprotests and civil rights demonstrations. Martin LutherKing Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated.The Watts riots rocked the city of Los Angeles.