"I was born in 1950 and came of age during the civil rights movement. If somebody had told me at 18 that we would still be fighting in 2022 with such intensity about violence against Black men and women, I’m not sure I would have believed it." - Ted Wells Jr. in Forbes, May 23, 2022.
For the second anniversary of the death of the George Floyd, Forbes featured a collection of reflections by Black leaders on change. Wells' are poignant.
In his youth, the George Floyd moment had been the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till. At the time, Wells was a little boy but obviously it resonated with him. Till's alleged crime had been whistling at a white women. Those responsible for the lynching had been acquitted by an all-white jury.
In contrast, there have been legal consequences for the members of law enforcement involved directly or indirectly in Floyd's death. However, Wells notes the racially-associated carnage in Buffalo, New York, on May 14th. During the massacre 10 lives were lost.
One day after the Forbes special had been published there was the mass shooting in the Uvalde, Texas school. 19 children and two adults died. It may or may not have been associated with Hispanic issues.
As for violence in itself, as Bloomberg Law reports, there have been 213 mass shootings in 2022. They are defined as when four or more are injured or killed.
As an optimist, Wells hopes that outrage will lead to change.
At Paul Weiss, Wells is a partner and the co-chair of the litigation department. In addition, he had been chairman emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Paul Weiss, chaired by Brad Karp, is known for its legacy of pushing the envelope on social justice. As a pro-bono initiative recently Paul Weiss won a significant voting rights victory in the North Carolina Voter ID litigation. In a Pivot Podcast, hosted by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway, Yale Management School guest Jeffrey Sonnenfeld saluted Karp as a "change agent" in social justice matters.
Since I am a boomer like Wells, I also vividly recall the beginnings of the civil rights movement. For me the "moment" had been the slayings in Mississippi of the Civil Rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney by the Ku Klux Khan. The three were there to try to register Black voters. The outrage mobilized many of us boomers to become active in the movement. I published articles. I produced a play. I fundraised. I engaged in peaceful protest. At the time I was fired up with hope. Currently, I am not.
Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. Now and then she does freelance assignments for law firms such as Paul Weiss and their vendors.