Derrick Bell

Derrick Bell (1930-2011) was the first tenured Black professor at Harvard Law School and the intellectual father of Critical Race Theory. His scholarship argued that racial hierarchy is a permanent feature of American society and that civil rights gains serve white interests as much as Black ones (interest convergence theory). His allegorical fiction, including Space Traders, extended his ideas into narrative form.

Founded Critical Race Theory; formulated the interest-convergence thesis (civil rights advances occur only when they align with white interests); demonstrated that formal legal equality does not eliminate structural racism.