We fall in love, we critical race theorists, because human beings are the end of our struggle.

Nothing in any of our theorizing is worth one peppercorn if it does not make life better for our beloved community.

Like a lot of stories about social movements, the one I'm going to tell you about starts with a protest. On May 6, 1983, after years of boycotts and tensions between students and faculty at Harvard Law School,

hundreds of students descended on the office of the dean.

George Bischarot was one of them.

At that point, we were rolling in terms of our movement, and we had a lot of momentum,

we had a lot of popularity.

I mean, the students were, they had never seen anything like it.

It was exciting.

It was thrilling and it was empowering.

The occupation of the dean's office made mainstream news.

A piece in the New York Times said, the size of the crowd seemed to surprise even the protesters themselves.

The paper reported conservative students and white students were standing in solidarity with minority student protesters.

All told, 500 people showed up that day, a third of the law school's entire student body.

I remember seeing James Forrenberg, who was dean at the time, coming in, and we were all sitting all over his floor throughout his office suite.

We had the place packed, right? And he took off his shoes and kind of tiptoed between us to get into his office.

In the late 70s and early 80s, students at Harvard Law School were pushing to desegregate the school's faculty.

This is Bobby Shapiro, another Harvard student who helped organize the May 6th protest.

Harvard Law School, in 1982, a liberal institution with, I don't know how many professors,

but a lot, had never, ever had a female professor of color.

It was just stunning.

For reasons you'll soon hear, the students were not satisfied with the faculty's response

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