DACOR Bacon Presents...Dinner and Conversation "Plessy v. Ferguson & Brown v. The Board of Education Protagonists"

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Please note this is a hybrid event - you have the option to attend in person or virtually. Registrations are required for all attendees. For in-person attendees, the event will run from 6:30 - 9 pm and will include dinner. The live stream will begin around 8 pm (virtual attendees will be sent a link for the event via email).

Join DACOR and the Washington Ambassador Club International (ACI) for a conversation on Supreme Court racial justice cases, specifically Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, with Steve Luxenberg and Todd Cox. The conversation will focus on addressing two protagonists in the transitions from slavery to segregation to integration: The 1896 Plessy v. Fersuson Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan (The Great Dissenter)  and Thurgood Marshall Sr, then founder and President-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund and Education (later US Supreme Court Associate Justice). The Association of Black American Ambassadors (ABAA), Black Professionals in International Affairs (BPIA) and Thursday Luncheon Group (TLG) are co-sponsors of the event.

It is not by chance that the DACOR Bacon House is front and center during the program Conversation in that the first one-hundred years of the history of the Supreme Court are in the House. It was owned by or lived in by Supreme Court Chief Justices and officers from the 1830's - 1910 (beginning with Chief Justice John Marshall and ending with Chief Justice Melville Fuller). In fact, Chief Justice Melville Fuller, of Plessy v. Ferguson fame, purchased the House on April 28, 1896, the day that Plessy v. Ferguson Oral Arguments began. DACOR Bacon House coincidentally is celebrating its bicentennial of the House this year. As Lin Manuel Miranda said in Hamilton, "You will be in the room where it happened."

Steve Luxenberg is an associate editor at The Washington Post and an award-winning author. During his forty years as a newspaper editor and reporter, Steve has overseen reporting that has earned many national honors for his reporters, including two Pulitzer Prizes.
 
His latest nonfiction book, Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation, was published in 2019 to critical acclaim. It was selected as a New York Times Notable Book that year and long-listed for the Cundill History Prize. As a work in progress, Separate won the 2016 J. Anthony Lukas Award for excellence in nonfiction writing.
 
In 2020, as the presidential election neared its final phase, Steve worked with his Washington Post colleagues Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan to tell the definitive story of the Trump impeachment, based on fresh reporting and dozens of in-depth interviews. With Steve serving as editor, the team wrote and published "Trump on Trial: The Investigation, Impeachment, Acquittal and Aftermath."
 
Steve’s first book was Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret (2009), honored as a Michigan Notable Book and selected as the 2013-2014 Great Michigan Read. Steve also has a TV “credit.” Look carefully, and you’ll see him as an extra in the fifth and final season of HBO’s dramatic series, “The Wire,” which aired in 2008. (Hint: Episode three.)
 
Steve’s journalistic career began at The Baltimore Sun, where he worked for 11 years. He joined The Post in 1985 as deputy editor of the investigative/special projects staff, headed by assistant managing editor Bob Woodward. In 1991, Steve succeeded Woodward as head of the investigative staff. From 1996 to 2006, Steve was the editor of The Post’s Sunday Outlook section, which publishes original reporting and provocative commentary on a broad spectrum of political, historical and cultural issues.
 
Steve is a graduate of Harvard College. He grew up in Detroit. He and his wife, Mary Jo Kirschman, a former school librarian, live in Baltimore. They have two grown children, Josh and Jill.

Todd A. Cox is Associate Director - Counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. Cox, who officially joined LDF on February 3, is returning to the organization after serving as the Vice President of Programs at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. Cox has more than 30 years of experience in racial and social justice, having held leadership roles in law, philanthropy, and government, including the administration of President Barack Obama. His extensive background in civil rights policy and litigation includes two stints at LDF, where he led the political participation team and served as Director of Policy.
 
Cox is familiar to LDF. He was Assistant Counsel from 1997 to 2003 where he litigated a variety of matters, particularly in the area of voting rights, and oversaw LDF’s political participation work. He later served as Director of the Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs in the Administration of President Barack Obama at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and most recently as Director of Criminal Justice Policy at leading Washington think tank the Center for American Progress where he provided a crucial and influential voice on federal criminal justice reform.
 
Mr. Cox’s impressive list of credentials also includes serving as Deputy Chief of the Special Litigation Division at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and as a Program Officer and Acting Deputy Director of the Human Rights Unit at the Ford Foundation. He has years of experience as a civil rights litigator and policy advocate, including at the Department of Justice and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law.