The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School (CHHIRJ) was launched in September 2005 by Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Jesse Climenko Professor of Law. The Institute honors and carries on the unfinished work of Charles Hamilton Houston, one of the 20th century’s most important, but relatively unknown, legal scholars and civil rights litigators.
CHHIRJ aims to be an organizing force for impactful scholarship, innovative strategic advocacy, coalition building, socially-concerned legal education, and community engagement on matters central to civil rights and equal opportunity in the 21st century.
Through our work we support litigation and advocacy strategies, raise awareness among a wide variety of audiences at the local, state, and national levels, and help identify and build solutions-based and action-oriented interventions by spreading knowledge of programs, research, practices, and strategies that have potential and/or a demonstrated track record of amelioriating inequality and the effects of both historical and contemporary racial discrimination and exclusion.