On March 5, a standing-room-only crowd filed into the auditorium of the Watt Family Innovation Center for a discussion of a pressing topic: the First Amendment. It was the second time during the week that students, faculty and friends of Clemson packed a hall to hear expert perspectives on U.S. constitutional rights as part of the Lectures in Law and Humanities Series, sponsored by Loebsack & Brownlee, PLLC.
The series is in its fifth year, organized by the Clemson University Humanities Hub and supported by the College of Arts and Humanities.
“Clemson students care about our freedom of speech,” said David Coombs, Director of the Humanities Hub. “It’s crucial to Clemson’s land grant mission to provide these opportunities to learn more about the constitutional history that made our civil liberties.”
First Amendment Litigation Panel
The first event was a First Amendment Litigation Panel, held on March 3 in the Honors College Great Hall. It featured Gabe Walters from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and Clare Norins, director of Georgia’s First Amendment Clinic. Each speaker provided an overview of First Amendment protections of free speech and touched on current cases in which their organizations are representing clients in defense of the First Amendment.
“Free speech is a radical concept. We exchange ideas, not violence,” Walters noted. Their presentations were followed by a Q&A session moderated by Assistant Professor Michael Gregory, director of the Law, Liberty & Justice concentration in the Department of Philosophy & Religion.
Gregory noted that while the First Amendment limits government regulation of speech, non-governmental forces such as social media companies are free to play a large role in censorship.
“Whether the First Amendment has the ability to address that is an open question,” he pointed out.
Their wide-ranging conversation touched on the importance of protecting speech that is unpopular or offensive, ensuring viewpoint neutrality in government policies, defending academic freedom and more.
The First Amendment and Lincoln’s Constitutional Legacy
The March 5 event was a keynote lecture delivered by Vernon Burton, the recently retired Judge Matthew Perry Professor of History at Clemson. His talk, “The First Amendment and Lincoln’s Constitutional Legacy,” traced the history of the First Amendment rights from the creation of the Constitution through Lincoln’s presidency to Clemson University today.
He noted that Lincoln’s legacy led directly to Clemson’s “Integration with Dignity” with the acceptance of Harvey Gantt as its first Black student in 1963. He noted that the First and Fourteenth Amendments worked in concert to allow Gantt’s admission.
He also touched on the topic of academic freedom. He made the case that while the First Amendment protects public participation in the democratic process, academic freedom protects the development of expertise in disciplines ranging from construction to history.
“[Freedom of speech] implies an equality of ideas. But in a University, there is no equality of ideas. Respect, yes, but ideas need evidence. Students are there to learn the difference between good ideas and bad ideas, and to learn to see the evidence and logic behind ideas,” he said.
Historians’ Roundtable
The following morning, the Lectures in Law and Humanities Series ended with a Historians’ Roundtable event in Burton’s honor.
“I am humbled by their analysis of the contributions I have made to the study of history and the influences they attributed to me,” Burton said.
The roundtable featured Harris Bailey (independent scholar and Clemson alumnus), Terence Finnegan (William Patterson University), Randal Jelks (Indiana University), Lawrence McDonnell (Iowa State) and Randall Stephen (University of Oslo) — all are historians who were once Burton’s students.
“Even though they did not coordinate their talks, each one emphasized a different aspect of my teaching and my writings: democratic stories and the democratization of history, the importance of sources and evidence, computing, perseverance, speaking truth to power, tolerance of different viewpoints and interpretations, and even prayer,” Burton said.
“I am thankful for their heartfelt remembrances, and also their good humor. What a delight that they are not only my students but beloved friends.”
