Last Thursday, the University of Georgia’s African American studies department hosted an impressive speaker. Jasmine Rand, founder of Rand Law L.L.C., a Miami-based civil litigation law firm, spoke early Thursday evening at the UGA chapel. Rand garnered national attention after her firm represented the families of Travyon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice in a civil capacity. She has made appearances as a legal analyst on many television networks and is teaching faculty at the Harvard Law School and University of Miami. Her accolades are extensive, but it all becomes more impressive when you consider she graduated from UGA less than 15 years ago.
Rand started the lecture referencing Nelson Mandela, asking not to be judged by her many successes, but by “how many times I fell down and stood back up.” She began by discussing her humble beginnings as well as her struggles in becoming a lawyer. After getting a mediocre LSAT score of 149 and being rejected by every law school, her continued persistence got her an opening in the spring semester. Rand never believed she was not good enough and ultimately transferred to Florida State to finish law school before starting her career as a civil rights attorney.
Much of the discussion was focused on the UGA department that brought Rand to speak – African American studies. Rand provided a counter-narrative to those that argue an African American studies major will not provide students with valuable skills and employment. She credits the development of her career to her African American studies professors who pushed her and taught her how to critically analyze a variety of issues.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the lecture was learning the origin of the phrase “I Am Travyon Martin.” While representing Martin, Rand was teaching a class at Florida A&M and asked her students to work on a project to generate publicity about the case. She expected them to write a simple press release but instead each student individually recorded a video saying “I Am Travyon Martin.” Their project garnered national attention and a similar format was used to draw attention to the killings of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice. Even the “Je Suis Charlie” campaign used after the attack on Charlie Hebdo in France borrowed from her students’ project, and this spread of ideas taught Rand a powerful lesson about giving students the agency to create change.
Rand finished her lecture by talking more generally about the current civil rights movement in the United States. She pointed out that the movement now has more strength than it did before due to the spread of social media and other technology – power is no longer invested in leaders that we must rely on for direction. Although the Travyon Martin criminal case did not result in a conviction, the spread of news about the case and others created publicity to help start a movement. After George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the Travyon Martin case, Rand said she really struggled with her vision. However, the next day, Martin’s mother called her and told her “Wake up; we’ve got more work to do.”
The Zimmerman verdict indicated that the system was broken, and she went on television and radio shows to illustrate this point for three days straight, reaching all six inhabited continents. After realizing that our nation needed pain to experience progress, she founded I Am The Change, an international movement focused on racial equality, and traveled around the world with the grandchildren of Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley to talk about collective action. In conclusion, she cited another South African saying, ubuntu – “I am Because You Are.” Even if you cannot see all the steps, keep putting one foot in front of the other and begin walking.
Photo Credit: The Red & Black
