WS Chronicle

Anita Earls, a civil rights attorney with 24 years of experience, will be the speaker for Bennett College’s Academic & Cultural Enrichment Series (ACES) program on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 11 a.m. in the Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel.  The program is free and open to the public.

Earls is the chief executive officer of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and its executive director and founder.  Her work has involved addressing structural racism, protecting minority voting rights and furthering community empowerment. She was appointed by the Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court to the Equal Access to Justice Commission for which she serves as secretary. For two years she was a member of the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Earls also volunteers with the Women’s Center of Chapel

Hill, and has served on the Board of Directors for the Durham Economic Resource Center.
A Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences at Duke University from 2009 to 2011, Earls previously taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and the UNC School of Law. She has also taught several undergraduate courses in the African and African-American Studies Department at Duke University.

Appointed by President Clinton to the post of Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Earls had responsibility for the Division’s Voting, Educational Opportunities, Disability Rights and Coordination and Review.