Rayman Solomon is recently retired from Rutgers University after 25 years at Rutgers Law School in Camden. An American legal historian, having received both a J.D. and Ph.D. in history, most of Rayman’s career was spent in administration rather than the classroom. He was the dean of the Law School for 16 years and the provost of the Camden Campus for 2 years. His scholarship centered on the history of the federal courts in the 20th century, legal professionalism, and judicial ethics.

“My interest in the public humanities and the state humanities councils goes back many years, and stems from my relationships. My dissertation advisor was Stanley Katz, whose role in promoting the public humanities both in New Jersey and nationally is foundational. One of my closest friends is Jamil Zainaldin who led the Federation of State Humanities Councils in Washington, DC for several years before becoming the long-time president of the Georgia Humanities Council.”

“My personal involvement before joining the Board was a public history project in my hometown of Helena, Arkansas, which is the county seat of Phillips County. In 1919 that county was the site of one of the largest race massacres in U.S. history, named the Elaine Massacre. The event was not only a tragedy with unknown numbers of Black sharecroppers murdered, but afterwards 12 Black men were sentenced to death after unconstitutional trials. A self-taught Black lawyer, Scipio Jones, took their case and saved their lives. The U.S. Supreme Court decision which prevented their execution was the beginning of both criminal justice reform, but also the NAACP’s strategy of fighting Jim Crow in the federal courts, which ultimately led to Brown. In 2019 a biracial group, of which I was a member, dedicated a memorial in Helena to the memory those who died in the Massacre.”