by Kyle Smith ’25
On Tuesday, March 18, the Vanderbilt University Law School Immigration Practice Clinic hosted our weekly class in a new location—the Nashville Public Library. There, in the library’s Civil Rights Room, surrounded by pictures and quotes from civil rights giants like Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and Reverend Dr. James Lawson, we found inspiration to incorporate into our work at the clinic. By studying their approach and uplifting the work of everyday people who disrupted the unjust system of segregation in the United States, we sought to explore the intersections of civil rights work and immigration in the south.
Elliott Robinson, our historian and librarian, guided us through seminal moments from the Nashville Civil Rights Movement, including the desegregation of the city’s public schools, Dr. Lawson’s teachings of nonviolent civil disobedience, and the 1960 march from Tennessee State University to the state capitol to integrate the city’s lunch counters. The room’s set-up, which features a replica lunch counter in the center with the Ten Rules of Conduct carried by protesters during the lunch counter sit-ins, literally provided us with a front row seat to explore this history. It forced us to consider the daunting and often dangerous conditions that protesters would endure simply to demand equal public accommodations. It challenged us to find within ourselves the courage to advocate on behalf of our clients, who rely on us to help them acquire humanitarian relief in the United States.
As we considered the similarities and differences between the civil rights era and contemporary battles over immigration, we discussed how racial profiling by law enforcement, negative media representations, and lack of political representation harm and marginalize Black and immigrant communities. We also discussed the importance of education within the fight for civil rights. In the past, state officials wished to deny Black students an equitable education. Today, the Tennessee legislature debates whether to enact legislation that would deny undocumented students access to a public k-12 education. Armed with a deeper sense of appreciation for the work of those who came before us, we left the Civil Rights Room with a renewed commitment to leveraging our skills to be stronger, more resilient advocates on behalf of our clients. 
The next phase of our trip took us from the Civil Rights Room to the Votes for Women Room down the hall. The room features quotes from suffragettes and prominent women leaders. Our librarian, Rebecca Price, asked us to read the text of the Nineteenth Amendment, which was scrolled across one of the walls in the room. She then asked us to consider how we could strengthen the Amendment. After discussing that the Nineteenth Amendment does not provide an affirmative right to vote, we participated in a few thought experiments to consider alternatives for enacting constitutional safeguards for voting and whether there should be limitations on the right at all.
After our conversation on voting, we turned to another topic of controversy—birthright citizenship. Here as well, the overlap between the Black freedom struggle and the immigration debate was striking. The birthright citizenship provision of the Fourteenth Amendment that President Trump now wishes to reinterpret was originally written to extend citizenship to enslaved Black Americans. It is remarkable that a provision of the Constitution that Black Americans fought to secure over 150 years ago would be at the center of the nation’s immigration debate. But, as our trip to the library highlighted, the similarities between the Black freedom struggle and the movement for immigrants’ rights are deeply connected.
Overall, our experience at the Nashville Public Library was academically enriching and personally fulfilling. The movement for civil rights provided us with a blueprint for challenging unjust laws and inhumane treatment of our neighbors. And, as Rebecca and Elliott reminded us, we have power as voters, citizens, and lawyers to challenge injustices whenever and wherever we see them. I hope we will use that power and encourage our friends, families, and classmates to do the same.
