![]() He had never heard of Stanford University when a school guidance counselor urged him to apply. And finally, it sort of removed shackles that I thought I had on my mind, and it made me imagine then I could do anything." "I could be somebody that I wasn't," he explained to Julian Bond in an interview at the University of Virginia in 2004. Ogletree said he too worked the fields as a kid, picking peaches, almonds and cotton.īut his parents always stressed the importance of education, and Ogletree often recalled how he would take out 20 books at a time from the local library and how reading became his escape and his ambition. His parents, who fled the Jim Crow South with just fourth- and 10th-grade educations, barely got by as seasonal farmworkers. Ogletree grew up on "the wrong side of the tracks" in the Central California town of Merced in a house made of cargo boxes with an outhouse. It was one of about a dozen books he wrote or contributed to, along with countless other scholarly works. The arrest prompted then-President Obama's White House "beer summit" with Gates and the officer who arrested him.Īs he was wont to do, Ogletree used it as a teachable moment about both race and class, writing a book about it called The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested for a suspected break-in at his own home. Ogletree was also the first to get the frantic call after Harvard University professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. "By advocating on my behalf, Charles Ogletree showed that this quest for gender justice for an African American woman is the quest for racial justice. " was incredibly astute in being able to apply what he learned as a trial lawyer to a situation that really had no rules," she said. And even though Ogletree was up for tenure at the time, Hill said, he didn't hesitate to wade into the controversy. Hill said Ogletree immediately understood that she would need a defense attorney even though she was the accuser, not the accused. Jesse Jackson and Anita Hill, when she brought allegations of sexual harassment against then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. He was a zealous and fearless advocate for Tupac Shakur, the Rev. He jetted to South Africa to lend a hand to those drafting the nation's new constitution after apartheid, the same way he jumped in to help generations of law students and young lawyers, as well as a long roster of both indigent and A-list clients. "Tree" - as Ogletree was affectionately known to friends - was as renowned and respected globally as he was close to home. And that's, I think, the mark of a true friend," Obama said. "He's always given me a pat on the back, especially when I'm not doing well. Obama had known Ogletree as his law professor, mentor, campaign adviser and friend. ![]() "He helps lift up voices that have been forgotten and have been lost, and that's been his life's work," said former President Barack Obama prior to Ogletree being honored with an award for his work years ago. ![]() ![]() Ogletree was known as a brilliant legal mind and a champion for racial equality and social justice in the classroom at Harvard Law School as well as in the courtroom. Harvard Law School professor and noted defense attorney Charles Ogletree has died at age 70 following an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis years ago. ![]()
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