President Obama became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990. Now, ImeIme Umana is following in his historic footsteps. This year, the Pennsylvania native was named the first black woman to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review.
Founded in 1887, the Harvard Law Review is commonly considered the most respected law review in the country. It’s also one of the oldest and most circulated student-edited law reviews in existence.
According to its website, the goal of the review is to give practicing lawyers an “important academic forum for legal scholarship” and to help them develop their legal writing chops. Being the president of a law review is a top honor; it’s the most important role a law student can hold during their studies.
Umana is currently seeking degrees from both Harvard’s School of Law and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Her academic work explores stereotypes of Black women in political discourse.
Many on social media have suggested Umana could continue to follow in Obama’s footsteps by becoming a political leader or even a future president. She already has plans to make a splash in Washington as an intern for the District of Columbia’s Public Defender Service this summer.
“For a field in which women and people of color have for too much of our past been marginalized or underrepresented, her election is an important and encouraging step toward a richer and more inclusive legal conversation,” Umana’s successor Michael Zuckerman told Vibe.
Umana called the honor “a great privilege.”
