Derek W. Black is a professor of law and one of the nation’s foremost experts in education law and policy.
His research focuses on school funding and ensuring equal opportunities for disadvantaged students. He has written over thirty articles in leading legal journals, including those at Yale, Stanford, New York University, California-Berkeley, Virginia, Cornell, Northwestern, and Vanderbilt. His research is often cited in court opinions and briefs, including in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also serves as an expert witness and consultant in school funding, voucher, and federal policy litigation.
His work reaches beyond the legal community. In an era of dwindling public school resources and ever-expanding inequality and privatization, he frequently appears in the media. His essays have been published in USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, and Time, among others. Outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Atlantic, Washington Post, and Education Week regularly request his expert analysis and commentary. He is also a frequent radio and television guest for national, regional, and local outlets.
He is currently a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina, where he directs the Constitutional Law Center and is the Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law. He began his career in teaching at Howard University School of Law, where he founded and directed the Education Rights Center. Prior to teaching, he litigated education cases at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
His new book, Dangerous Learning, uses the South’s repression of black education and freedom literature before and after the Civil War as a lens to examine current racial controversies in schools.
