Tisch College Solomont Speaker Series: Keith Ellison

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Join a conversation with Minnesota's Attorney General Keith Ellison! The first African American and the first Muslim American to be elected to statewide office in Minnesota, Attorney General Ellison was first elected as Minnesota's top lawyer in 2018.  A well-known leader for criminal-justice reform and accountability, he was the lead prosecutor of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and led the team that successfully convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on a charge of second-degree murder. Ellison later wrote Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence about the case and his experience as lead prosecutor.

Ellison previously represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he championed consumer, worker, environmental, and civil- and human-rights protections for Minnesotans. While in Congress, he served on the House Financial Services Committee and was co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; he also founded the Congressional Antitrust Caucus and the Congressional Consumer Justice Caucus. Ellison also served four years in the Minnesota House of Representatives and previously spent 16 years as an attorney specializing in civil-rights and defense law, including five years as executive director of the Legal Rights Center.

The conversation will be moderated by Tufts Professor of the Practice of Political Science Samuel M. Gebru. Attendees are invited to join a book signing of Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence with Attorney General Ellison in the mezzanine outside ASEAN Auditorium immediately after the public forum ends.

This event is sponsored by Tisch College, the Political Science Department and the Tufts University Prison Initiative of the Tisch College of Civic Life (TUPIT).