For justice or money: That was the question 200 law students asked themselves.

Gregory Howard Williams, president of the City College of New York, spoke Monday at Hendricks Chapel as part of the College of Law’s Kharas Distinguished Visiting Scholar series, urging students to decide whether they were joining the law profession for monetary gain, or to work for the ideal of justice.

‘Each and every one of you can make a difference,’ Williams said. ‘As educated men and women, it is your responsibility to make a difference.’

Williams spoke to a group of students, encouraging them to become lawyers for the good of the public, and not for the materialistic aspects of the job.

Williams is known for his 1995 best-selling memoir, ‘Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black.’ The memoir was selected as Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1995. He is also the first-ever recipient of the National Bar Association’s A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Preservation of Human and Civil Rights.

At the lecture, Williams spoke of his troubled childhood, when at age 10 he learned that he was a descendant of black heritage and therefore suffered the injustices of segregation. He emphasized through his story that students should reaffirm their commitment to law and assure the dream of justice for all.

He detailed how people who live in poverty do not have access to legal protection, citing that one in 4,000 people living in poverty do not have access to legal aid.

‘More than 80 percent of legal needs in this country are not met,’ Williams said.

Williams also said the lack of access to legal protection is the deepest form of hopelessness. As a minority child, Williams’ family did not have any access to lawyers who could right the wrongs that had been done to them in the name of racism.

‘Laws only mattered to those with the ability to enforce them,’ he said. ‘I wondered if access to lawyers could have saved my family.’

Hannah Arterian, dean of the College of Law, said she was personally thrilled that Williams was at Syracuse University to speak because she has known him for more than 25 years.

‘His story is a true American story, in all of its difficulty and all of its transformation,’ Arterian said.

Williams said he wanted to become a lawyer so he could show another human being that their life had meaning and value, just like a lawyer had done for him many years ago when Williams was looking for a way to attend college.

Jill Partridge, a first-year law student said she attended the speech because she was required to by the College of Law, but said she thought the speech was very effective.

‘It was a good reminder to law students to work for the greater good of the community and not for the material aspects,’ she said.

Elizabeth Moeller, also a first-year law student who attended the speech as a requirement, said Williams has an inspiring story to tell.

‘It made me hope I can do things and not turn into an evil, greedy lawyer,’ Moeller said.

Published on September 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm