UK Libraries hosting Judge Robert L. Wilkins for roundtable discussion on race, law, history

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 2, 2024) — On Oct. 9, UK Libraries will welcome Judge Robert L. Wilkins of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, for the first in a series of two public conversations on race, law, and history.

In a public roundtable discussion, Wilkins will share how an entry in UK Libraries’ Notable Kentucky African Americans database led him to find his family’s stories in court records at the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives.

A native of Muncie, Indiana, Wilkins has spent years tracing his family’s roots, some of which stretch to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, where an enslaved ancestor named Edy Salsbury sued for and won freedom for herself and all the other enslaved people on the Salsbury plantation, which later became the Salsbury Free Negro Settlement.

Wilkins will be joined by Kentucky State Archivist Rusty Heckaman, UK Historian Vanessa Holden, and UK Special Collections Librarian Reinette Jones to discuss his experiences working with historical legal documents and other archival materials.

Jones is the co-creator of the NKAA database, developed in 2003 with former UK Librarian Rob Aken. The database is a free online collection of entries about people, places, events and communities pertaining to African Americans in and from Kentucky, and serves more than 200,000 users each year.

The roundtable will be 10-11:30 a.m. in the Great Hall of the Special Collections Research Center. Seating is limited and RSVPs are required.

On Oct. 10, Wilkins will deliver a free public lecture at the J. David Rosenberg College of Law as the 2024 Roy R. and Virginia F. Ray Distinguished Lecturer.

The events are sponsored by UK Libraries, the Rosenberg College of Law, the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies and the John G. Heyburn II Initiative for Excellence in the Federal Judiciary.

Wilkins obtained a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 1986 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989. Following law school, Wilkins served as a law clerk to District Judge Earl B. Gilliam of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

In 1990, Wilkins joined the Public Defender Service for the district, where he served first as a staff attorney in the trial and appellate divisions and later for several years as Special Litigation Chief. In 2002, he joined the law firm of Venable LLP as a partner, handling white-collar defense, intellectual property and complex civil litigation matters.

During his tenure with the Public Defender Service and in private practice, Wilkins served as the lead plaintiff in Wilkins, et al. v. State of Maryland, a landmark civil rights lawsuit that inspired nationwide legislative and executive reform of police stop-and-search practices and the collection of data regarding those practices.

Wilkins also played a key role in the establishment of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in September 2016 on the National Mall. His work as the Chairman of the Site and Building Committee of the Presidential Commission led to the Congressional authorization of the museum and the selection of its location.

On Dec. 27, 2010, Wilkins was appointed United States District Judge for the District of Columbia. He was appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Jan. 15, 2014.

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