Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression

A Conversation with Cornel West and Robert P. George

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The 2026 Hugo Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression at Wesleyan University features Professors Cornel West and Robert P. George and President Michael Roth in a wide-ranging conversation on the meaning and practice of democratic dialogue.

At a time when polarization continues to test our institutions and communities, this exchange underscores a central truth: democracy depends not only on our right to speak but on our willingness to listen, engage across differences, and remain committed to a shared civic life.

This lecture is part of Wesleyan’s Renewing Democracy’s Promise initiative, a multi-year effort to strengthen democratic culture through dialogue, community-building, and civic engagement. It also contributes to Democracy250, which invites reflection on the nation’s past while investing in students as the next generation of civic leaders.

We invite you to watch the recording and continue engaging with these critical questions through upcoming Democracy250 programs and opportunities.

The Hugo L. Black annual lecture is designed to bring to the Wesleyan campus public figures and scholars with experience and expertise in matters related to the First Amendment and freedom of expression. This lecture is endowed by Leonard S. Halpert ’44 (1922–2017), who believed that the First Amendment to the US Constitution is the basis upon which we enjoy all other Civil Rights. This lecture is named in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black.

Hugo L. Black Lecturers 1991 - 2025

Cornel West Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary Robert P. George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and founder of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.
Emily Bazelon Staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School	Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder Carleton College
David Rabban, '71 University of Texas at Austin School of Law	Keith Whittington Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University
Bertrall Ross Chancellor's Professor of Law U.C. Berkeley Law	William Nelson
	Jelani Cobb IRA A. Lipman Professor of Journalism Columbia University
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia	Rodney Smolla Dean University of Richmond Law School
Harry A. Blackmun Justice Supreme Court of the United States	Margaret Marshall Chief Justice Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
Anthony Lewis Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, The New York Times	Cass Sunstein School of Law University of Chicago
Nadine Strossen President American Civil Liberties Union	Patricia Williams Professor of Law Columbia University
Abner Mikva Former Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia	Laurence H. Tribe Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University
Norman Dorsen Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law	Lawrence Lessig Director, Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethic Professor, Harvard Law School
Patricia Wald Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia	Jack M. Balkin Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment Yale Law School
Floyd Abrahms William J. Brennan Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law, Columbia University	Antonin Scalia Associate Justice Supreme Court of the United States
Kathleen Sullivan Dean Stanford Law School	Geoffrey R. Stone Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor University of Chicago Law School
Nat Hentoff Award-winning author and journalist	Aharon Barak President of the Israeli Supreme Court (Ret.), IDC Herzliya
Lee C. Bollinger President Columbia University	Robert Post Sol and Lillian Goldman Professor of Law Dean, Yale Law School
Anthony D. Romero Executive Director American Civil Liberties Union	Stanley Fish The Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law Florida International University
Linda Greenhouse Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law Yale Law School	John Finn Professor Emeritus Wesleyan University