In all my courses, I really have to teach the basic messages of my life … that the rewards, the satisfactions, are not in being partner or making a million dollars, but in recognizing evils, recognizing injustices and standing up and speaking out about them even in absolutely losing situations where you know it’s not going to bring about any change — that there are intangible rewards to the spirit that make that worthwhile.
— Civil rights advocate and legal scholar Derrick Bell on Fresh Air in 1992. He was the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School and his 1973 book about race and American law remains a staple at American law schools. Bell died last week from carcinoid cancer.
