The National Black Law Journal (NBLJ) has been committed to scholarly discourse exploring the intersection of race and the law since 1970. NBLJ was started by five African American law students and two African American law professors. The Journal was the first of its kind in the country. Because of the drop in African American students at the UCLA School of Law after the passage of Proposition 209, the Journal was sent to Columbia where publication could be continued.

One of the Journal’s founding editors noted that it was important that there be a forum for providing a theoretical framework for practical daily application of Black legal ideas and concepts. NBLJ has aimed to build on this tradition by publishing articles that make a substantive contribution to current dialogue taking place around issues such as affirmative action, employment law, the criminal justice system, community development, and labor issues. The Journal has a commitment to publish articles that inspire new thought, explore new alternatives, and contribute to current jurisprudential stances.

In 2005, a group of students at UCLA began the process of bringing NBLJ back to its birthplace through the organization of a symposium entitled “Regression Analysis: The Status of African Americans in American Legal Education." In the fall of 2009, a group of committed students reformed the NBLJ Board, and in the spring of 2010, NBLJ was published at UCLA for the first time in more than a decade.

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