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Southern U. Honors Johnnie Cochran

By Kamilah R. Story
Black College Wire

Southern University held a memorial ceremony for famed lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., who established a scholarship at the Southern University Law Center and was keynote speaker at both the Southern University at Shreveport spring commencement in 2001 and at the commencement on the Baton Rouge campus in spring 2002.

Photo credit: John Oubre/SU Publications Johnnie Cochran was keynote speaker at the spring 2002 commencement at Southern University-Baton Rouge.

Cochran, who became a household name when he defended O.J. Simpson against murder charges, died of a brain tumor March 29 at age 67.

The ceremony was held the next day at noon in the university's Law School Atrium and was attended by law students, faculty and staff.

A proclamation in honor of his contributions to the Southern University Law Center, the black community and the legal profession was presented by Edward "Ted" James, president-elect of the Student Bar Association, and by Eric W. Claville, Southern University Law School Division representative for the American Bar Association.

Members of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. honored their fraternity brother by singing the Kappa Hymn.

"He was truly a figurehead in the law; he made great bounds [in] making a place for African American attorneys to be recognized as having great accomplishments in defense," Tawnii Cooper-Smith, a law student from Mashantucket, Conn., and Student Bar Association representative, said.

"He was a great lawyer and a great humanitarian. I admired his work that he did in the community and where he stood when he represented not just the "O.J.'s" but the "No J's" and I really respected that," Claville said. "It's great that now his peers, colleagues and his family will remember him [for] that."

In his commencement speech on the Baton Rouge campus, Cochran told graduates that he was working on a case seeking reparations for slavery. He received an honorary doctorate in public policy.

Cochran, a Shreveport, La., native, established the Johnnie L. Cochran Sr. Scholarship for UCLA African American males (known as Cochran Scholars); and scholarships at the University of New Mexico School of Law and at the Southern University Law Center.

�Rarely are we privileged to encounter an individual of Mr. Cochran's caliber. When we do, [we] must savor the moment," said Edward R. Jackson, chancellor of Southern University at Baton Rouge.

"It is a great loss for us to lose such an important figure in the law system, and his presence was felt by all students, especially African Americans working and studying in the field of law. He was inspirational, a true hero, a modern-day hero for the big man as well as the little man. He showed he worked for people as important as O.J." Simpson as well as "the common guy walking on the street, and that is what was really special about him," Charlee Renaud, a law student from Opelousas, La., said.

Walter Zinn, a law student from Pontotoc, Miss., said he hoped that because of Cochran�s passing, people will realize his significance in the African American community and in the legal profession, �because he has succeeded beyond some of the prejudice and injustice that people were suffering from the legal perspective."

Speaking at the memorial ceremony were Freddie Pitcher Jr., chancellor of the Southern University Law Center; Saul Simmons, vice chairman of the Student Bar Association and Derrick Kee, outgoing Student Bar Association president.

A copy of the proclamation was to be sent to the Cochran family.

"He was a very special person and will be greatly missed," Leon Tarver, president of the Southern University System, said. "He was fond of all of SU, he knew a lot of people from SU in his personal and professional life and he was always available to help."

Kamilah R. Story, a student at Southern University, writes for the Southern Digest.

Posted April 4, 2005