Derek W. Black

Derek W. Black, J.D., is a professor of law at the University of South Carolina School of Law. His areas of expertise include education law and policy, constitutional law, civil rights, evidence, and torts. The focus of his current scholarship is the intersection of constitutional law and public education, particularly as it pertains to educational equality and fairness for disadvantaged students. His articles have been published in the Stanford Law Review, California Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Washington University Law Review, and his work has also been cited in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals and by several briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court. Derek litigated issues relating to school desegregation, diversity, school finance equity, student discipline, and special education at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, before leaving to teach at the Howard University School of Law, where he also founded and directed the Education Rights Center. He attended law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a member of the law review for two years, was awarded the Dan Pollitt ACLU fellowship in his third year, and graduated with High Honors.