The author of “Ferguson’s Fault Lines: The Race Quake That Rocked a Nation” will speak at The University of Toledo this week.

Kimberly Norwood, Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, will examine the institutional, systemic and cultural structures that resulted in racially disparate treatment in Ferguson five years ago.

Her free, public lecture, “Ferguson Five Years Later: A Look at the Legal and Social Reverberations in Ferguson and Around the Nation,” is a part of the College of Law’s Cannon Lecture Series.

The event is at noon Thursday, Sept. 26 in the UToledo Law Center McQuade Auditorium.

“We are honored to host a scholar and advocate of Professor Norwood’s stature,” said Geoffrey Rapp, associate dean for academic affairs and Harold A. Anderson Professor of Law and Values at the UToledo College of Law. “Her insights into the limitations of the legal system for addressing persistent racial discrimination have had a profound impact on how we think about lasting and difficult questions.”

In Norwood’s book published in 2016, she used Michael Brown’s death and the protests in Ferguson as the foundation for a study on how various laws, social conditions, and economic and political policies may negatively impact the lives of black and brown people in America — contributing to racial and socioeconomic conflict.

Norwood’s research focuses on colorism, implicit bias and the intersection of race, class and public education in America. She is a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, a commissioner on the Missouri Supreme Court Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness, and a member of the Monitoring Team for the U.S. v. Ferguson Consent Decree.

Norwood is the first black woman in Washington University’s history to receive tenure. She recently was named the 2019 Woman of the Year by the Missouri Lawyers Media. Norwood is a graduate of Fordham University and received her law degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The Cannon Lecture Series was established in 1980 to honor former Toledo attorney Joseph A. Cannon. The series hosts nationally known individuals who explore both the humanistic dimensions and limitations of the legal system.