Dorothy Roberts: Annual Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights

Rothko Chapel

“The Long Struggle to Abolish Reproductive Slavery” with Dorothy Roberts Annual Frances Tarlton “Sissy” Farenthold Endowed Lecture in Peace, Social Justice and Human Rights Presented in partnership with the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at UT-Austin School of Law The Rothko Chapel and the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas at Austin present the eighth annual Sissy Farenthold Lecture featuring acclaimed scholar of race, gender and the law, Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, on the intersections between reproductive rights, criminalization of pregnancy, and the family policing/separation systems in the aftermath of the June 2022 Dobbs decision. Roberts will explore the histories of compelled births in the US dating back to Black women’s reproductive bondage during slavery, and the abolitionist frameworks that call for the dismantling of these targeted, oppressive structures for more compassionate and equitable reproductive rights and family support systems. The lecture will be followed by conversation moderated by Eleanor Klibanoff, women’s health reporter at the Texas Tribune, and a book signing on the Welcome House Plaza of Robert’s Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World (2022). Named in honor of Sissy Farenthold (1926-2021), who dedicated her life to exposing and responding to injustices as a lawyer, legislator, and global leader in human rights, this lecture series inspires audiences to think and act creatively in response to the greatest human rights challenges of the 21st century.