Opening Keynote Presentation: A Conversation with a Voting Rights Activist

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Session Type: AALS Programs

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This plenary session features a conversation between a community activist and a lawyer, focusing on the movement around felon disenfranchisement. The moderated conversation will engage with various conference themes, including how lawyers and law clinics can effectively support and empower community-based activism, particularly relating to racial justice and criminal justice.

Angel Sanchez is a community activist and Senior Legal and Legislative Analyst for the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. At age 16, he was tried as an adult and sentenced to 30 years in prison. While there, he earned his GED and took some undergraduate courses.. When he was released, Angel earned an undergraduate degree, then a law degree from University of Miami. After graduation, he joined other formerly incarcerated leaders in fighting to end Florida’s felony disenfranchisement, culminating in the successful and historic passage in 2018 of Florida’s Amendment 4, the voting rights restoration for felons initiative. Angel published an article about his experiences entitled In Spite of Prison in the Harvard Law Review.

Robert Lancaster is Assistant Dean of Experiential Education at Louisiana State University Law Center and teaches a Parole & Reentry Clinic that focuses on the representation of individuals seeking early release and community reentry after having served long prison sentences. He is also a founding member and Vice President of the Louisiana Parole Project -- a holistic, community based service provider providing reentry services to formerly incarcerated people.

During this session, Angel and Bob will be in conversation about the role of the lawyer in community-led social movements, including the types of skills and approaches that this work requires. The conversation will also include ways to cultivate and sustain collaborative partnerships across movements, and will consider self-care strategies we should adopt, particularly when the obstacles seem insurmountable. This plenary aims to inspire learning and activism, and to provoke dialogue about how lawyers and law students can deploy collaborative and sustainable approaches in support of grassroots change.