Samantha Booke's Legacy

Samantha Booke, the only woman on the Wiley College Debate Team, is a composite character who hopes to become one of the first female African American lawyers in the country, and her debate experience helps her to achieve this goal. An active member of the civil rights movement, she also took one of the first Freedom Rides to Alabama.

Diversifying The Legal Profession

Law schools and law firms increasingly recognize the importance of increasing diversity in the legal profession. Urban Debate Leagues (UDLs) help diversify this community by creating a direct and effective pipeline for students of color who will in large numbers choose legal careers.

Through the academic benefits of debate, UDLs are equipping a new generation of urban students with the skills, motivation, and ambition to pursue a legal education and career. As a result, writes Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School, “we will soon see, thanks in large part to urban debate, an increasing number of talented, hard-working, and highly successful minority students matriculating at law schools and entering the legal profession.”

And they already have: today’s Great Urban Debaters are already making positive contributions to the legal community.

To date, over three dozen law school deans and professors have signed a statement of support, sponsored by the NAUDL, backing debate as a central pipeline to legal careers for minority students.

If you are a member of the legal profession, we need your help in advancing the support for debate inside the legal community. Join the hundreds of lawyers, law students, professors, and deans who support urban debate. You can confirm your support for debate as a legal pipeline by:

• Backing the Statement of Support
• Joining the Legal League - a network of lawyers, law students, and professor who support debate.

There are opportunities to volunteer with Urban Debate Leagues:

• Judging at debate tournaments.
• Becoming an assistant coach at a high school.
• Having your law firm sponsor a local school.
• Joining a local UDL advisory board.
• Buying a sponsorship table at the Urban Debate National Championship.
• Supporting the NAUDL.

Contact Eric Tucker, Deputy Director of the NAUDL, with any questions.