“Most people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” –Thomas Edison
Please join us on Friday, September 20, 5pm at CSU Law to celebrate our Legal Career Opportunities Program (LCOP), a groundbreaking program that has been changing lives for more than fifty years. The invitation is below.
This highly selective program, established in 1972, admits students whose applications, when viewed in their entirety, have demonstrated strong academic ability, perseverance, and promise for success, but whose standardized test score does not reflect their great potential. Our unique program has produced many of our most distinguished graduates.
50 years ago, Patricia Ann Blackmon ‘75, a young Black woman, born in Oxford, Mississippi, one of eleven children raised in poverty by a single mother, was not supposed to go to college, and certainly not to law school. Against great odds, she was the first person in four generations of her family to attend college. She not only graduated from Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi magna cum laude, but she also was accepted and enrolled at CSU College of Law and went on to be the first Black woman elected to a state court of appeals in Ohio. She served five terms on the Ohio Court of Appeals for the 8th District. The story behind her story demonstrates the power of opportunity.
Disappointed by a dearth of diverse students at CSU College of Law, Professor Ann Aldrich, the first tenured woman law professor at CSU Law and later the first woman federal judge in Ohio, started a student recruitment program in the early 1970’s at Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the South. She recruited a number of promising students, including Patricia Ann Blackmon, and persuaded them to apply to CSU Law. Patricia Blackmon enrolled at CSU Law and the rest is history.
When Judge Blackmon retired from the Ohio Court of Appeals, I had the privilege of announcing the establishment of the Judge Ann Aldrich/Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon Scholarship Fund to fund scholarships for LCOP students. Funds raised at the September 20 celebration will go to this important scholarship fund.
Please join us on September 20 to celebrate compelling stories about the power of creating opportunity, seizing it, and making improbable dreams come true. The invitation is below.
Please Join Us!
Friday, September 20, 2024 • 5 pm
Moot Court Room
Cleveland State University College of Law
Please join us for a gathering of LCOP alumni and supporters to celebrate a groundbreaking program that has been changing lives for more than fifty years. We will update you on the LCOP Program, highlight some extraordinary careers of LCOP alumni, and introduce you to current LCOP students, including the 2024 incoming LCOP class. A reception in the Atrium will follow.
A Special Message from Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon '75:
"Dear LCOP Graduates and Friends,
Below is a registration link to the Celebration and Reunion of the Legal Career Opportunities Program (LCOP).
In 1972, LCOP was the brainchild of Cleveland State Law Professor Ann Aldrich, Bruce Elfvin, student President of Law Students for Civil Rights, and David Forrest, student President of the Black Law Students Association.
LCOP made it possible for so many of us to attend law school, including me and four other students from five HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the South, who made their way to Cleveland to study law in the summer of 1972.
We would be honored if you could celebrate with us.
Sincerely, Patricia Blackmon, Retired Judge"*
*Patricia Ann Blackmon, from Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, Mississippi, was one of the HBCU 5.
Please consider supporting a LCOP student by contributing to the recently established Judge Ann Aldrich and Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon LCOP Scholarship Fund using the link below.
Have a great day. Have a great week.
The views and opinions expressed in my Monday Morning Message are solely my own and do not reflect the views and opinions of the law school or the university.
For copies of past messages, please go to this link: Monday Morning Messages
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My best,
Lee
Lee Fisher
Dean, Cleveland State University College of Law
Joseph C. Hostetler-BakerHostetler Chair in Law
1801 Euclid Avenue, LB 138 |Cleveland, Ohio 44115 -2214
216-386-8688 | lee.fishernull@csuohio.nulledu