Burns Institute
Our Story
We facilitate a collaborative environment where community and cross-system stakeholders work through shared values and use data to transform systems.
James Raymond Bell, J.D.
In the international justice arena, James consulted on youth justice for the African National Congress (South Africa) and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund; and as an advisor to Holland and England on their justice systems’ overrepresentation of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, he addressed justice stakeholders in the House of Lords.
James published widely on school discipline, youth justice history, and health, and authored the introductory essay “Correcting the System of Unequal Justice” for The New York Times bestseller “The Covenant with Black America,” edited by Tavis Smiley.
His honors include a Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship, the Livingstone Hall Award for Outstanding Juvenile Advocacy (American Bar Association), the Clinton White Attorney of the Year Award (Charles Houston Bar Association), Advocate of the Year (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Justice Department), and the Moral Leadership Against Injustice Award (Delancey Street Foundation).
“I founded the W. Haywood Burns Institute to represent the values and embody the spirit of our namesake.”
William Haywood Burns
After graduating with honors from Harvard College and receiving a law degree from Yale University, Burns (1940–1996) served as the first law clerk for District Court Judge Constance Baker Motley. He served as general counsel to Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign, was a founding member of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and represented the Attica Brothers and others advancing self-determination.
The founding dean of the City College Urban Legal Studies Program, Burns later served as dean of the Law School at the City University of New York (CUNY) and was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School before establishing a Harlem-based law firm. Talent, passion, and zest for life were his signatures. He died in an automobile accident while attending the International Association of Democratic Lawyers conference in Cape Town, South Africa.