Derek W. Black is a professor of law and one of the nation’s foremost experts in education law and policy.
He focuses on school funding and equality for disadvantaged students. He has published over thirty scholarly articles in the nation’s top legal journals, including the flagship journals at Yale, Stanford, New York University, California-Berkeley, Virginia, Cornell, Northwestern and Vanderbilt. His research is regularly cited in judicial opinions and briefs in federal and state courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also involved in school funding and federal policy litigation, where he serves as an expert witness and consultant.
His work, however, reaches beyond the legal community. In an era of dwindling public school resources and ever-expanding inequality and privatization, he frequently appears in the media. His essays appear in USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and Time, among others. Outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, Washington Post, and Education Week regularly request his expert analysis and commentary. He is also a frequent radio and television guest for national, regional, and local outlets.
He is currently a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina. He began his career in teaching at Howard University School of Law, where he founded and directed the Education Rights Center. Prior to teaching, he litigated education cases at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
His forthcoming book, Dangerous Learning, uses the South’s repression of black education and freedom literature before and after the Civil War as a lens to examine current racial controversies in schools.
