Charles Lawrence

Charles R. Lawrence III is a professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii, and a founding figure of Critical Race Theory. He is particularly known for his 1987 article arguing that unconscious racism pervades American law and his subsequent work defending the constitutionality of campus hate-speech codes.

Introduced the concept of unconscious racism into legal analysis, arguing that equal-protection doctrine must account for racially discriminatory motivation that operates below conscious awareness; co-authored the foundational CRT hate-speech text.