Black, Brown, and Green Voices: Debo Patrick Adegbile

May 23, 2022

Black, Brown, and Green Voices webpage banner with people's faces

The African American Irish Diaspora Network presented an interview with Debo Patrick Adegbile, Jurist and Commissioner of the United States Civil Rights Commission. Mr. Adegbile was interviewed by NYU historian Professor Miriam Nyhan Grey and the event was introduced by NYU sociologist Professor Kim DaCosta.

Debo Patrick Adegbile, a respected lawyer, is the son of Nigerian and Irish immigrants to New York City. In 2016, he was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Civil Rights Commission.

This series was presented in collaboration with NYU's Glucksman Ireland House and the NYU’s John Brademas Center. Registration was required in order to receive the Zoom-log in details for the webinar. This program was open to everyone.

Debo P. Adegbile

Debo P. Adegbile is a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP, a position he has held since 2014. Previously, from 2013 to 2014, Mr. Adegbile was Senior Counsel to the Chairman of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. Prior to the Senate Judiciary Committee, for over a decade he held a number of leadership roles at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), including, Acting President and Director of Litigation.

Bio Continued...

During his time at LDF, Mr. Adegbile argued two of the most significant civil rights cases in decades before the US Supreme Court, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 v. Holder, and Shelby County v. Holder. Both cases involved constitutional challenges to core provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Prior to joining the LDF, he was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Mr. Adegbile received a B.A. from Connecticut College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.

Black, Brown and Green Voices represent a documentation strategy and public humanities initiative which aims to amplify the diversity of the Irish diaspora by recording interviews with Black and Brown Irish Americans and those who speak to the Black experience in Ireland. The project director is historian Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey who has been based at New York University since 2008 and is a founding board member of the African American Irish Diaspora Network. This series of programs is presented by the African American Irish Diaspora Network in collaboration with Glucksman Ireland House, NYU.