Shirley Jefferson
Shirley A. Jefferson (born 1953) is an American law school administrator and faculty member. She serves as vice president of community engagement and government relations and associate law professor at Vermont Law and Graduate School. A native of Selma, Alabama, who marched to Montgomery as a child, Jefferson is a frequent public speaker on race-related issues, and has pushed for the removal a controversial mural depicting slavery from the Vermont Law School student center since 2020. In 2019, the National Black Pre-Law Conference for Legal Education Access recognized Jefferson with its Legal Education Access and Diversity Champion Award. In 2022, the Vermont Law School Alumni Association named the Dean Shirley Jefferson Distinguished Service Award after her. Early life and education The daughter of a truck driver in Selma, Alabama, Shirley Jefferson was one of nine children, and grew up attending segregated public schools. In March 1965, at the age of 12, she joined the third march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Congressman John Lewis. Her mother died when she was 15 years old. When she was 17, she integrated her high school. After finishing high school, Jefferson moved to Baltimore